Vitamin public health consequences

C. F. Garland, et al., The Role of Vitamin D in Cancer Prevention, American Journal of Public Health 96, no. 2 (2006) 252-261 and M. F. Holick, The Vitamin D Epidemic and Its Health Consequences, Journal of Nutrition 135 (2005) 2739S-2748S. 

Micronutrient deficiencies are one of the most prevalent public health problems affecting more than two billion people worldwide (UNICEF and MI 2004). The magnitude of the problem is much greater in developing countries, where multiple micronutrient (MMN) deficiencies often occur concurrently as a result of poor quality diet. Although vitamin A, iron and iodine are the major micronutrient deficiencies in populations, deficiencies of zinc, vitamin C, folic add and other B vitamins (vitamin B2, Bg, B12 and niacin) are often present simultaneously (Huffman et al. 1999). MMN deficiencies are common throughout the lifespan, but specially in pregnant women and children. Micronutrient defidencies, if left untreated, can have considerable consequences on health and economic development (UNICEF and MI 2004). 

Health is unquestionably compromised by abnormal vitamin A nutriture at the extremes of too little (xerophthalmia/keratomalacia/irreversible blindness) or too much (toxicity). However, the health and social consequences of subclinical or marginal nutritional states are yet to be fully delineated. This section considers the criteria used to define a public health problem, the geographic distribution of hypovitaminosis A at varied levels of severity, and programs initiated for its control. Consideration is then given to hypervitaminosis A. 

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