Dietary Supplementation and Vitamin A Nutrition of Rural Children

Abstract

The greatest single cause of disability in the developing world, where 80 per cent of the disabled live, is malnutrition. Most vulnerable of all are the infants and children, whose well being and intellectual growth determine the future of the nation. Vitamin A deficiency, the blinding malnutrition or xerophthalmia, is the world's leading cause of blindness. In Asia, where the disorder is most common, more than five million children are affected by xerophthalmia every year, and at least 5,00,000 of them become blinds.