Vitamin Angels Launches New Program

Vitamin Angels Launches New Program

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.VitaminAngel Alliance started a new campaign with the goal of eliminating vitamin Adeficiency-related blindness in children by 2020. The international drive will be launched with a grant fromJohnson & Johnson to fund the first year of a three-year initiative aimed atprotecting 6 million at-risk people. This phase includes administration ofhigh-dose vitamin A supplements to 250,000 children in year one in India.

Vitamin A deficiency childhood blindness is a global healthcrisis of alarming proportions, said Howard Schiffer, executive director andfounder of Vitamin Angel Alliance (www.vitaminangel.org). This ravaging formof blindness is preventable with vitamin A supplements at a cost of about 5cents per child per year, and we will reach 6 million children, lactatingmothers and infants in the three-year pilot program. We are thrilled to haveJohnson & Johnson, a world leader in health care, as our partner as welaunch this effort in Calcutta and other provinces in India.