Book Review: Sight and Life Manual on Vitamin-A Deficiency Disorders (Vadd)

This Sight and Life Manual on vitamin A deficiency disorders (VADD) presents the knowledge contained in existing lecture and pictorial material in a form that practitioners can put to direct use. It is a handbook for those working in the “vitamin A front line” in developing countries who need an information tool that presents information in a clear and understandable fashion. Divided into eleven chapters initial discussions in this handbook consider the roles played in nature by vitamin A and its precursor carotenoids. How the chemical and physical characteristics of their molecular structure largely determine their functions is also indicated. This is followed by a discussion of what happens to vitamin A in the body once it has been ingested and to what is known about how it fulfills its various functions at the molecular level. Three chapters that describe the ocular manifestations of vitamin A deficiency (VAD) the contribution of VAD to mortality and morbidity and its role in growth retardation impairment of the immune response defective hemopoiesis and some other disorders are included. Two further chapters describe the global prevalence of VADD actively under review by the WHO and its epidemiology. Finally the issue of VADD control is dealt under seven headings: treatment prophylaxis prevention and management of infectious diseases fortification dietary modification plant breeding and disaster relief.