Y. Alwin Jayakumar ¹, Y. S. Sivan ¹, C. Arumughan ¹, A. Sundaresan ¹, C. Balachandran ¹, Joseph Job ¹, S. S. Deepa ¹, S. L. Shahina ¹, Malathi Damodaran ², C. R. Soman ³, V. Raman Kutty ⁴, P. Sankara Sarma ⁵

Affiliations
1 Regional Research Laboratory Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Trivandrum 695 019, IN
2 Sri Sathya Sai Trust Hospital, Trivandrum 695 013, IN
3 Regional Research Laboratory Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, Trivandrum 695 019, IN
4 Health Action by People, Pettah, Trivandrum 695 024, IN
5 Achutha Menon Centre for Health Science Studies (Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology), Trivandrum 695 011, IN

Abstract

Vitamin A deficiency is a major nutritional deficiency in third world countries such as Malawi, Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, Indonesia, India and Nepal. It is prevalent in many Indian States such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar and West Bengal. It is the result of insufficient - quantitative and/or qualitative - intake of food and therefore, is an example for social and economic deprivation affecting health. The most dangerous health consequence of vitamin A deficiency is blindness: deficiency affects the corneal epithelium leading ultimately to keratomalacia and opacities. But long before such manifestation become obvious, there are warning signs such as dryness of the conjunctiva (xerosis), Bitot's spots, etc.

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