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【科普】富含维生素A的食物有助于挽救儿童的生
Article Date: 19 Mar 2007 - 8:00 PDT
Enriching the diets of malnourished children with Vitamin-A supplemented yoghurts and rice kernels is helping to reduce child mortality, experts said this week. Initiatives to supply vitamin A and mineral-fortified foods are now regarded as one of the most cost effective ways to help speed up achievement of the United Nation's Millenium Development Goals to reduce hunger, poverty, mortality and improve maternal and child health.
Children suffering from a lack of essential micronutrients such as vitamins, iron, iodine and other minerals are more susceptible to life-threatening infections and have a high mortality. More than one million premature deaths were attributed to Vitamin A deficiency last year alone. Supplementing the diet of micronutrient-deficient children with vitamin A helps boost their immune system so they are more likely to survive illness, Professor Alfred Sommer, of John Hopkins University and Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA explained.
Speaking during the two-yearly BioVision Life Science forum, in Lyon, France Professor Sommer said: "The discovery that Vitamin A reduced child mortality was made by chance when 4000 malnourished children were given two capsules of vitamin A yearly to prevent blindness. Over time it was found the initiative, costing a mere six cents per child, not only preserved sight but also reduced child mortality by one third." The rice-based diets of poor communities provide calories but lack meat, dairy products and green vegetables providing natural vitamin A sources, he noted.
Now companies using biotechnologies are helping to combat vitamin and mineral deficiencies contributing to malnutrition. A Nutrition Improvement Programme sponsored by the Dutch biotechnology company DSM is helping to enrich the diets of families in developing countries. The company manufactures a low-cost vitamin A and mineral-enriched rice kernel product that can be mixed with regular rice. It also produces other vitamins, caretenoids and minerals to fortify staple foods. This week the company announced it is supporting the United Nations' World Food Programme, that delivers 400 million tones of food aid - the equivalent of 15 food-laden jumbo jets per hour - to around 100 million people in over 80 countries each year. DSM is providing technical advice and supplying the programme with high-nutrient products and financial assistance.
Two yoghurts per week help save Bangladeshi children
The French yoghurt manufacturer Danone has meanwhile launched a programme in collaboration with the Grameen Bank to build small factories supplying Bangladeshi families with low cost vitamin A-enriched yoghurts. Speaking at BioVision, Sven Thormahlen, Danone's executive vice president R&D, said the company has set up its first not-for-profit factory producing 3 to 5 tons annually of Shokti Doi, a live yoghurt enriched with vitamin A, iron, iodine and zinc retailing for six euro cents. "The price enables families to buy two yoghurts per child per week that should provide substantial public health benefits." The factory employs 50 local people and delivers to a 25 km radius using local women delivering door to door from rickshaws, he added. Recycling of compost at the site is used to produce bio-gas, supplying energy to 50 local households. The product, which has a 28-day shelf life, is advertised only by word-of-mouth recommendations. "There is no marketing budget so as to keep costs down," he explained.
The project has been so successful that Danone plans to build a further two factories this year and wants ultimately to build 50 plants throughout Bangladesh. "In 10 years one factory will have reached 500,000 children" he said. The impact of the product on their nutritional state is being evaluated. Danone now wants to take the model to other countries but says the support of the Grameen Bank was crucial to establishing the first factory. The business idea, which makes no profit that will not be re-invested in further Bangladeshi factories, was presented to shareholders and strongly endorsed, he said.
The Danone model was held up at BioVision as a beacon initiative showing how to help meet some key UN Millenium Development Goals of improving health and eradicating poverty. Although a few success stories have emerged in Asia, progress to achieving the 8 goals and 18 targets are well behind schedule and are unlikely to be met by the 2015 target date, said project director Professor Jeffrey Sachs of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, New York. "Thirty thousand children are still dying every day from wholly preventable conditions" he told the BioVision meeting. Professor Sachs blamed the "devastating lag in accomplishing targets" on delays in the adoption and diffusion of science-based technologies. This was caused by a lack of funds and the absence of coherent organisation using effective business methods to implement strategies, identify problems and overcome stumbling blocks, he noted. Many communities were in a poverty trap lacking the most basic infrastructure such as roads and electricity to enable them to take advantage of science-based technologies. "They cant get a foothold on the first rung of the ladder out of poverty. There's been too much talk and too little action," he concluded.
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-05-29 05:11
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