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Newborn vitamin A reduces infant mortality 7-6-08
A new study has found a single oral dose of vitamin A given to newborns
reduced their risk of death by 15 percent .
The study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
was published in the July 2008 edition of the journal Pediatrics.
"It has long been known that vitamin A supplementation can reduce mortality in
children over 6 months of age," said Rolf D.W. Klemm, Dr. PH, MPH, the study's
lead author from the Bloomberg School's Center for Human Nutrition.
"Our study showed that vitamin A given at birth can also improve infant survival
within the first 6 months of life."
In the study of 15,937 newborns from rural communities in northwest Bangladesh
with over 90 percent born at home, the researchers gave half of the newborns a
dose of 50,000 international units of vitamin A and gave another half a placebo
with a few days of birth.
They found the death rate for the vitamin A group was 3.85 percent compared to
4.51 percent for the non-vitamin A group.
A statement released by Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public
Health suggests that vitamin A likely reduced the severity of potentially fatal
infections, which are the major cause for deaths in early infancy in South Asia.
"This study supports the findings of previous vitamin A studies in Southern Asia
where the evidence is now strong that vitamin A given to newborns can
dramatically reduce mortality," said study co-author Keith West, DrPH, MPH, RD,
the George G. Graham Professor in Infant and Child Nutrition at the Bloomberg
School of Public Health.
"More studies are urgently needed to determine if newborn vitamin A
supplementation would reduce mortality among infants in other regions,
especially Africa."
"We are excited by the results of this study, that build on two previous studies
in South Asia, confirming this low cost intervention can significantly
contribute to reducing mortality in the first 6 months of life," said Kent R.
Hill, assistant administrator for Global Health at the U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID).
"A key next step is to consider the operational issues for using this
intervention."
Early in the 1980s, Alfred Sommer, MD, MHS, professor and dean emeritus of the
Bloomberg School of Public Health found vitamin A deficiency increased the risk
of child mortality. And Sommer, West and colleagues from Hopkins further proved
that a single dose of vitamin A could reduce child mortality by 34 percent.
"Because childhood mortality is greatest during the first few months of life, a
single dose of vitamin A administered by mouth to a newborn child can save the
lives of an additional 300,000 children in Asia every year," said Sommer.
"That is on top of the one million lives a year that would be saved by dosing
all vitamin A deficient children twice a year from six months through 5 years of
age."
A health observer affiliated with foodconsumer.org cautioned that the results of
the study may not be applicable to the infants in the United States or other
countries because the causes for infant deaths may not be the same.
Comment:
If you are concerned you can have your child's blood tested when they do the foot prick if you tell them ahead of time.