Severe vitamin A deficiency in India during pulse polio immunization.

Although this assessment of children monitored during the pulse polio rounds does not serve as a formal vitamin A deficiency survey, the number of children assessed and the large number of sites sampled exceeded the minimum numbers of children and clusters required for the most basic vitamin A deficiency survey using night blindness as the main indicator (3,042 children and 30 cluster). The WHO standard of 0.5 per cent prevalence of Bitot’s spots to be considered a significant public health problem has also been exceeded3. These data suggest that vitamin A deficiency may be a significant problem in underserved areas of India.