Having just heard from the press that children need to be supplemented with vitamin A to increase their resistance against measles in addition to getting vaccinated against measles, Ms. Nguyen Lan (32 years old, Go Vap district) looked for a place to take her child for vitamin A supplementation.
Ms. Lan has a 3-year-old child who participates in both the national and private vaccination programs to ensure that no injections are missed. In addition, her child's diet is also maintained with adequate nutrition. However, if it is necessary to supplement vitamins to protect health during the epidemic, she is willing to take her child for supplementation, with the advice of a doctor.
Not only Ms. Lan, in recent days, many other parents have also been interested in supplementing vitamin A for their children. According to Dr. Truong Huu Khanh - Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City Infectious Diseases Association, when children have measles, their resistance is very weak. Supplementing vitamin A during the time children are sick is necessary, not only to increase resistance but also to reduce the risk of complications such as color blindness and cataracts in children with measles.
To prevent measles , all children need to be fully vaccinated against measles according to professional guidelines, and high-dose vitamin A supplements should be given every 6 months to children under 5 years old according to the national program campaign. This is a vitamin A deficiency prevention program organized by the Institute of Nutrition - Ministry of Health twice a year.
Despite the availability of an effective vaccine, measles remains a public health problem. Severe cases of measles or complications are more common in malnourished children, especially those with vitamin A deficiency or weakened immune systems. When the body's resistance is weakened, children are susceptible to complications, and most children die from complications of measles.
According to the Ministry of Health, vitamin A supplementation has been shown to reduce mortality from measles by 50%. Measles severely affects children's nutritional status, causing anorexia, loss of appetite due to mouth ulcers, vomiting and diarrhea. This not only increases nutritional needs, but also reduces nutrient absorption. In particular, measles increases the need for vitamin A, leading to the risk of deficiency, even corneal ulcers and blindness, even in children who were not previously deficient in vitamin A.
