Vitamin A supplementation in children with recurrent respiratory infections

Abstract

Vitamin A deficiency predisposes children to infection by suppression of humoral and cell mediated immunity as well as changes in the respiratory epithelium(1). Infection in turn reduces the absorption of vitamin A further depleting vitamin A stores and making the child more susceptible to infections resulting in a vicious cycle of events. Though vitamin A supplementation did not appear to be associated with a significant decrease in mortality from acute respiratory infections(2), supplementation to children in Australia with recurrent respiratory infections and no clinical evidence of vitamin A deficiency was shown to reduce the number of episodes of respiratory infections(3). Thus, it is likely that vitamin A supplementation may reduce morbidity due to respiratory infections, though it has no effect on mortality. Since vitamin A deficiency is common in India, we hypothesized that the protective effect of vitamin A in children with recurrent respiratory infections is likely to be more pronounced here. The present trial was therefore designed to evaluate the effect of vitamin A supplementation in children with recurrent respiratory infections.