Vitamins: fat-soluble vitamins, water-soluble vitamins, deficiencies
Biochemistry · MBBS
Study notes
A malnourished child can't see at dusk and has foamy eye spots. This is vitamin A deficiency — Bitot spots (foamy patches) and night blindness progressing to xerophthalmia and corneal blindness, the leading preventable cause of childhood blindness worldwide. The WHO's high-dose vitamin A capsules (every 6 months) prevent it — a few cents per child. Fat-soluble vitamins store in liver/fat, so deficiency takes months to appear but excess also poisons (A: liver damage, D: hypercalcemia). The capsule program is public health's cheapest sight-saver.
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