While working in Indonesia during the 1970s, Dr. Sommer discovered that mild vitamin A deficiency, which causes the progressive eye disorders xerophthalmia and keratomalacia, also dramatically increased childhood morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases, particularly measles and diarrhea. He also discovered that vitamin A supplementation in children in the developing world reduced measles fatalities by 50 percent and overall childhood mortality by one-third. Despite widespread criticism of his discoveries from the scientific community, Dr. Sommer continued to research his theories and later documented that a large oral dose of vitamin A, costing a few pennies, was a more effective and affordable means of treating vitamin A deficiency than injections. Today the oral dose is the recommended standard of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the control of vitamin A deficiency is included in the United Nations' Declaration of the Rights of Children.
UNICEF and the WHO estimate that more than one million children would die of infection or become blind each year without vitamin A intervention programs that now operate in more than 60 countries. According to UNICEF, over 400 million capsules of vitamin A were administered to children in 2002, saving the lives of more than 250,000 children worldwide that year alone.
Dr. Sommer is the first individual researcher to receive the Pollin Prize. Previously, the award has gone to teams of researchers. Nathaniel F. Pierce, MD, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, was a co-recipient of the Pollin Prize in 2002 for his work on the development of oral rehydration therapy.
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Contact: Tim Parsons
paffairs@jhsph.edu
410-955-6878
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
17-Dec-2004