HIGH-DOSE VITAMIN-A SUPPLEMENTATION IN THE COURSE OF PNEUMONIA IN VIETNAMESE CHILDREN

We carried out a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded trial to evaluate the effect on morbidity of high dose oral vitamin A, given on hospital admission to 592 children aged 1-59 months with moderate and severe pneumonia. Severely underweight children were not included, but 45% were moderately underweight. The vitamin A and placebo groups were comparable in baseline characteristics. Four patients died. Amon g all of the surviving children, no differences were: found regarding mean time for normalization of fever, respiratory rate and time of hos pitalization. Stratification for moderate malnutrition, degree of pneu monia, age and sex revealed moderately malnourished vitamin A-suppleme nted children to have a shorter time of hospitalization (p = 0.04), du e to an effect in females aged > 12 months (p = 0.02) and females with very severe pneumonia (p = 0.048). This study indicates that, in deve loping countries like Vietnam, supplementation with vitamin A in child ren with pneumonia could shorten the recovery rate in the ones that ar e undernourished, especially females > 1 y old.