Much important research on micronutrients has been carried out in the Asia-Pacific Region and neighbouring countries over the last 50 years, with the Nutrition Society of Australia being an important vehicle for many such activities. The framework to be used here will briefly start with an historical perspective, geographical and cultural factors, clinical aspects, epidemiological data, public health programmes and delivery, more recent modes of information and communication, on-going misinformation and emerging issues. The emphasis will vary according to the actual micronutrient and its relevant epidemiological and public health aspects. A recent substantial narrative review by authors associated with the Micronutrient Forum demonstrated that there is still a way to go in identifying and addressing unresolved ‘neglected micronutrients’ in public health nutrition programmes worldwide, including thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pyridoxine, vitamin B-12, vitamin D, vitamin K, calcium and selenium. The most attention globally on micronutrient prevention and control programmes to date has been on vitamin A, folate, iodine, iron and zinc, with a measure of success, perhaps least so with iron deficiency, but which has conversely a good record in clinical management. When vitamins were first described in the early 19th century, it was a major scientific achievement in the understanding of health and disease. Clinicians recognized beriberi, pellagra, rickets, scurvy and xerophthalmia as specific vitamin deficiencies, rather than diseases due to infections or toxins. Nevertheless, much remained to be clarified despite a period of programmatic and epidemiological advances in the second half of the 21st century. Somewhat in parallel, specific populations and demographics were increasingly identified as including higher at-risk populations such as in women and young children, and in the Australian Aboriginal population by Clements and others, by Hetzel and colleagues in what is now Papua Niugini with regards to iodine deficiency, vitamin A in Indonesia, and so on. As noted above, public health programmes and delivery have concentrated on five or six micronutrients, with a good degree of success with support from United Nations bodies, bilateral governments, and national programmes, although financial support was usually external, sometimes more reflecting donor priorities, and not always consistent. Given the limitations of past and current interventions and management strategies, as well as unresolved issues in the background science, there remains an urgent need for more comprehensive, evidence-based knowledge and guidelines, and the increased application of improved and expanded programmes.
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