Abstract
Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) has been recognized as a public-health issue
in developing countries. Economic constraints, sociocultural
limitations, insufficient dietary intake, and poor absorption leading
to depleted vitamin A stores in the body have been regarded as
potential determinants of the prevalence of VAD in South Asian
developing countries. VAD is exacerbated by lack of education, poor
sanitation, absence of new legislation and enforcement of existing food
laws, and week monitoring and surveillance system. Several recent
estimates confirmed higher morbidly and mortality rate among children
and pregnant and non-pregnant women of childbearing age. Xerophthalmia
is the leading cause of preventable childhood blindness with its
earliest manifestations as night blindness and Bitot’s spots,
followed by blinding keratomalacia, all of which are the ocular
manifestations of VAD. Children need additional vitamin A because they
do not consume enough in their normal diet. There are three general
ways for improving vitamin A status: supplementation, fortification,
and dietary diversification. These approaches have not solved the
problem in South Asian countries to the desired extent because of poor
governmental support and supervision of vitamin A supplementation twice
a year. An extensive review of the extant literature was carried out,
and the data under various sections were identified by using a
computerized bibliographic search via PubMed, Web of Science, and
Google Scholar. All abstracts and full-text articles were examined, and
the most relevant articles were selected for screening and inclusion in
this review. Conclusively, high prevalence of VAD in South Asian
developing countries leads to increased morbidity and mortality among
infants, children, and pregnant women. Therefore, stern efforts are
needed to address this issue of publichealth significance at local and
international level in lower- and middle-income countries of South
Asia.