In Vietnam, vitamin A status in women and pre-school children has improved considerably over the last 20–30 years, and is now comparable with that in the UK and USA. > Stunting is still present in 23 % of urban and rural pre-school children in Vietnam, indicating that nutritional problems still exist. > More than 50 % of Vietnamese women and children have marginal zinc concentrations, as assessed by international standards. > Plasma zinc concentrations are not good indicators of zinc status as they constitute only ~1% of total body zinc, are depressed by infl ammation, and appear to refl ect primarily the bioavailability of dietary zinc.> Experimentally, ribofl avin defi ciency (as well as zinc defi ciency) inhibits growth, but I know of no attempt to investigate the importance of ribofl avin in the etiology of stunting.> Dietary evidence suggests that ribofl avin deficiency is extensive in Vietnam.> The prevalence of anemia in Vietnam was only ~10% and only half of this was associated with iron defi ciency. > In Cambodia, Vietnam’s immediate neighbor, abnormal hemoglobins (principally hemoglobin E and α-thalassemia) were present in 60% of pre-school children.> The prevalence of anemia was 60% in those with abnormal hemoglobin and 40% in those with normal red cells.> Anemia caused by abnormal hemoglobin is not responsive to iron intervention, which may even be harmful.> A high proportion of the anemia in SE Asia may be attributable to abnormal hemoglobins.
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