Vitamin A programme in Assam probably caused hysteria
K. P. West, Alfred Sommer · BMJ · 2002
EDITOR—Did the recent campaign to distribute vitamin A in Assam, India, cause an epidemic of illness or hysteria? The public health science underlying vitamin A prophylaxis and the reports that emerged after the same-day dosing of some 2.5 million preschool children point to hysteria. Firstly, did vitamin A kill a child the day after dosing, and up to 13 children the next week, as claimed (overdosage by a new, larger delivery cup is being cited as the cause)?1 Almost certainly …