BMJ  2003;327 (2 August), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7409.0-d

Vitamin A given soon after birth increases survival of newborns

Giving newborn infants vitamin A soon after birth can reduce mortality before 6 months of age by over 20%. In a community based randomised double blind, placebo controlled trial Rahmathullah and colleagues (p 254) studied 11 619 infants born in rural Tamil Nadu. The infants received two doses of vitamin A or placebo shortly after birth. During the first six months of life, 23% fewer infants given vitamin A died. The efects were limited to low birthweight infants.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?

Relevant Article

Impact of supplementing newborn infants with vitamin A on early infant mortality: community based randomised trial in southern India
Lakshmi Rahmathullah, James M Tielsch, R D Thulasiraj, Joanne Katz, Christian Coles, Sheela Devi, Rajeesh John, Karthik Prakash, A V Sadanand, N Edwin, and C Kamaraj
BMJ 2003 327: 254. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ