HKI co-authors report on progress and lessons learned with vitamin A supplementation, Drops of Life: Vitamin A Supplementation for Child Survival.

En français

June 11, 2008, Dakar, Senegal –West and Central Africa is home to 10% of the world’s population of children under five years old; however, over 25% of the world’s child deaths (2.9 million child deaths annually) occur in this region. Research shows that in areas where vitamin A deficiency is prevalent, child mortality is reduced by an average 23% following vitamin A interventions. In West and Central Africa, bi-annual high-dose vitamin A supplementation (VAS) of children 6-59 months old is considered the most feasible, affordable and effective strategy to control vitamin A deficiency in the short and medium term.

A recent report, Drops of Life: Vitamin A Supplementation for Child Survival, takes stock of VAS in the context of child survival programming in West and Central Africa, with a particular focus on large-scale, preventive VAS programs for children 6-59 months old. It examines progress, challenges, and lessons learned in VAS programming for child survival (2001- 2006) and identifies opportunities for improved policy formulation and program implementation to maximize the contribution of VAS to child survival.

The report concludes that among the many challenges that countries in West and Central Africa will face in the coming years, the control of vitamin A deficiency is one that can be overcome. Large-scale preventive VAS has the promise to be among the most cost-effective and high-impact interventions towards the attainment of the Millennium Development Goal for the reduction of child mortality. The need is urgent, and the solutions are known, effective, and affordable.

The full UNICEF/HKI publication can be accessed by clicking here.

If you would like to make a donation to HKI’s efforts to address vitamin A deficiency please click here.