While research supports the benefits of vitamin A for general health, doctors stress that it is no substitute for measles vaccination and it is not a cure.
The Claim: Vitamin A Can Reduce the Risk of Dying From Measles
What We Know About Vitamin A as a Measles Treatment
There is no antiviral medication currently available for measles treatment, and vitamin A has primarily been used as a management approach for malnourished children in developing countries.
Lead study author Christopher Sudfeld, ScD, an associate professor of global health and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, noted that most randomized controlled trials of vitamin A treatment for measles were conducted in sub-Saharan Africa in the 1980s and early 1990s — in places like Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia, where children might not get enough vitamin A.
For most children in the United States, however, vitamin A deficiency is not an issue, Dr. Sudfeld says.
Vitamin A-rich foods include eggs (specifically the yolk), green leafy vegetables, carrots, fish, milk, butter, and sweet potatoes.
“The nice thing about vitamin A is you don’t have to take it every day, because your body stores it. So you don’t have to worry if your kid only eats vitamin A-rich foods two or three times a week, because that may be enough,” says Amy Edwards, MD, an infectious disease expert and associate professor in the department of pediatrics at Case Western Reserve’s School of Medicine in Cleveland.
What We Don’t Know About Vitamin A and Measles
It’s not clear if vitamin A supplementation is helpful if you are not deficient in this nutrient, says Dr. Edwards.
“Published papers don’t show if additional supplementation in children who are not deficient is helpful,” says Edwards. “We generally recommend only giving vitamin A to children who are hospitalized with measles, because that way, if there’s even just a smidge of benefit, we want to correct that deficiency, if it exists.”
She adds that more research is needed to see how beneficial vitamin A may be in milder cases and in people who are already getting enough vitamin A.
Should You Try Vitamin A for Measles Management?
Parents of children sick with measles and adults with measles should never decide to take vitamin A supplements on their own, says Patsy Stinchfield, NP, the immediate past president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID).
“When prescribed by a knowledgeable provider — usually for hospitalized children on the day of diagnosis and a second dose on day 2 — vitamin A is considered supportive management, much like giving oxygen to someone with pneumonia,” says Stinchfield. “It doesn’t cure or treat the virus, but supports immune function while the patient is in the acute stage of the illness.”
Sudfeld emphasizes that a doctor’s supervision is vital, because the doses of vitamin A used in measles treatment are very high and can cause serious health problems if taken incorrectly.
The bottom line is vitamin A supplements may be part of supportive care for some individuals with measles, and research suggests they may help reduce mortality in certain populations. But “supplements will not prevent people from getting measles,” Sudfeld says. “Only vaccination does that.”