Giving vitamin A supplements to children under the age of five in developing countries could save 600,000 lives a year, researchers claim. Writing in the British Medical Journal , UK and Pakistani experts claim they assessed 43 studies involving 200,000 children, and found deaths were cut by 24% if children were given the vitamin. Experts also say taking it would also cut rates of measles and diarrhoea.The body needs vitamin A for the visual and immune systems to work properly It is found in foods including cheese, eggs, liver and oily fish.