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Vitamin A Deficiency among preschool age children
in slums of Kolkata, Howrah and in rural southern West Bengal

The extent of Vitamin A-Deficiency among mothers and children in southern West Bengal, India, is not well known. A level of Vitamin A-Deficiency that reaches public health significance would have implications for health care programmes for children in this area. To get an impression of the prevalence of Vitamin A-Deficiency among preschool age children of the area in which the primary health care programme of St. Thomas Home and its sister NGO, Howrah South Point, operate, a doctor examined all preschool age children attending the primary health care centers of the said institutions in the years 2008 to 2012 for signs of xerophthalmia. These primary health care centers are located in the urban and suburban slums of Kolkata, of its neighbor city Howrah, and in the surrounding rural area of southern West Bengal.

A child with Bitot`s spots in its eyes, indicating Vitamin A Deficiency
The numbers of attending and examined preschool age children in the years 2008 to 2012 are shown in the following table:

The graphics underneath shows the extent of Vitamin A-Deficiency detected among preschool age children attending the primary health care centers in the years 2008 – 2012. There is obviously a declining trend in the prevalence of this micronutrient deficiency.

This survey has a number of limitations. As St.Thomas Home and its sister NGO, Howrah South Point, select intentionally high-risk slums with obvious profound poverty as their project areas, the results reflect the extent of Vitamin A-deficiency of the poor socioeconomic subgroup of the population of southern West Bengal only. These results cannot be generalized to the overall population of southern West Bengal.

Furthermore, this was not a door-to-door-survey of the resident population of the selected poor areas, but a survey among preschool age children brought to primary health care centers due to various ailments, which were mostly of minor severity. It is well known that various diseases, mostly of infectious nature, exacerbate Vitamin A-deficiency. Results may therefore not even be representative for the overall child population of the selected poor areas.
Nevertheless it is useful to know which extent of Vitamin A-deficiency can be expected among children of preschool age attending primary health care centers of poor areas of southern West Bengal. It seems to be justified to give high dose-Vitamin A-supplements regularly to all these children according to international recommendations on Vitamin A-supplementation.