Number of doses for treatment of Vitamin A deficiency is
Prevention of Vitamin A deficiency Prevention and/or control takes two forms (a) improvement of people's diet so as to ensure a regular and adequate intake of foods rich in vitamin A, and (b) reducing the frequency and severity of contributory factors, e.g., PEM, respiratory tract infections, diarrhoea and measles. Both are long term measures involving intensive nutrition education of the public and community paicipation. Since vitamin A can be stored in the body for 6 to 9 months and liberated slowly, a sho term, simple technology had been evolved by the National Institute of Nutrition at Hyderabad (India) for community based intervention Against nutritional blindness, which has subsequently been adopted by other countries . Vitamin A deficiency treatment : Vitamin A on days 1,2 and 14 each (for age >12 months, give 200,000IU; for age 6-12 months, give 100,000 IU; for age 0-5 months, give 50,000IU The strategy is to administer a single massive dose of 200,000 IU of vitamin A in oil (retinof palmitate) orally every 6 months to preschool children (1 year to 6 years), and half that dose (100,000 IU) to children between 6 months and one year of age8. In this way, the child would be, as it were "immunized" against xerophthalmia. The protection afforded by six-monthly dosing seems very adequate as measured by clinical signs of deficiency Ref: Park 25th edition Pgno : 654 Guidelines for the inpatient treatment if severly malnourished children, WHO Pgno : 23
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Maternal and child care