The prevalence of vitamin A deficiency (VAD) contributes to:

• Increased morbidity and mortality due to a weakened immune system
• Slowed growth and development
• Visual system disorders, including, xerophthalmia, irreversible blindness and night blindness

Supplementing children between the ages of six months and five years with two doses of vitamin A per year reduces:

• Morbidity and mortality in children affected by VAD:
  • Mortality:
    • 12 to 24% reduction in overall risk of death
    • 12% reduction in death due to diarrhea
  • Morbidities:
    • 15% reduced incidence of diarrhoea
    • 50% reduced incidence of measles

Did you know that vitamin A saves lives? For more than 25 years, Nutrition International, based in Canada, has provided more than 10 billion capsules of vitamin A for children under five. This low-cost intervention prevents blindness, strengthens immune systems and has helped hundreds of millions of children around the world grow up stronger and healthier. That’s a lot of Canadian know-how, doing a lot of good ― and it’s time we recognized it.

We work with vitamin A capsule manufacturers around the world

In partnership with UNICEF, we work with vitamin A capsule manufacturers to ensure that the capsules produced can survive transport to hot climates, have a shelf life of three years, deliver a consistent dose of vitamin A to every child, and can be easily and safely administered by frontline health workers.

We support health systems to deliver vitamin A

Working closely with UNICEF and other partners, we support ministries of health to deliver vitamin A supplementation programs to preschool age children.