In Haiti, a blind boy (left) waits with his mother and two siblings for vitamin A supplements. His blindness is the caused by a deficiency of vitamin A.
UNICEF/HQ02-0305/Giacomo Pirozzi
Vitamin A is essential for your body's immune system. Giving vitamin A supplements to children is one of the most cost-effective ways of increasing their body's ability to fight against disease and improves their chances of survival, growth and development. It reduces deaths from all causes by 23 per cent.
Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is a global problem. It affects more than 100 million children and is responsible for as many as one in every four child deaths in regions with a deficiency of vitamin A. Vitamin A deficiency means that you are at a greater risk of dying from a range of illnesses such as measles, malaria or diarrhoea.
High levels of VAD can also cause blindness and greatly increase the risk that a child may die from diseases such as measles, diarrhoea and acute respiratory infections. Now, there is also increasing evidence that VAD increases the risk of maternal death.
UNICEF's goal is to eliminate vitamin A deficiency by 2010. It will do this by supporting affected communities to help them to get access to a variety of foods, use fortified foods and take vitamin A supplements. Overall, UNICEF supports 95 per cent of the world's vitamin A supplements for developing countries, with the bulk of the funding coming from the Micronutrient Initiative.
In 2007, UNICEF supplied more than 640 million capsules of donated and procured Vitamin A from its Copenhagen warehouse to 75 countries. UNICEF estimates that as many as 300,000 child deaths are prevented each year due to vitamin A supplementation.