Giving newborn babies vitamin A supplements can increase their likelihood of surviving diarrhoea, fever and respiratory infections, a new study has claimed.
Research by medical experts in India found that if the vitamin was taken within 48 hours of birth, a child's mortality rate was significantly increased - but that it did not reduce the occurrence of the conditions.
Tests were carried out on more than 11,000 youngsters – half of whom were given vitamin A supplements and the other half a placebo.
Dr James M. Tielsch, from Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University, led the study with experts from the Aravind Centre for Women, Children and Community Health in Madurai, south India.
He said: "It is...a consistent finding in almost all vitamin A supplementation studies done in low-income countries over the past 20 years that we see important positive effects in reducing mortality, but the incidence of (illness) is not changed."
Last week, the director of India's National Institute of Nutrition said that the country has the highest number of vitamin A deficient children in the world.
According to Dr B Sesikeran 330,000 youngsters die every year for want of vitamin A.
Giving newborn babies vitamin A supplements can increase their likelihood of surviving diarrhoea, fever and respiratory infections, a new study has claimed. 
