Single dose vitamin A treatment in acute shigellosis in Bangladeshi children: randomised double blind controlled trial

What this study found

Single-dose vitamin A improved clinical recovery but did not improve bacteriological clearance. By day 5, 45% (19 of 42) of the vitamin A group versus 20% (8 of 41) of controls were clinically cured (P = 0.02); Kaplan-Meier curves showed a higher rate of clinical cure from day 2. Bacteriological cure from day 3 onward was not different: 38% (16 of 42) versus 39% (16 of 41) (P = 0.93). No adverse effects were noted.

Study & population

Randomized, double-blind, controlled trial in Bangladeshi children hospitalized with acute culture-confirmed shigellosis.

Intervention

Children in the active arm received a single oral dose of 200 000 IU water-miscible vitamin A as retinyl palmitate, given with standard antibiotic therapy.

Key limitation

The trial was small and single-center, limiting precision and generalizability.

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