Vitamin A-plus campaign for 22.0 million children held

The National Vitamin A-plus campaign was conducted on Monday with a target to feed over 22.0 million children aged six months to 59 months vitamin A-plus capsule to prevent childhood blindness and reduce child mortality in the country.

"Feeding Vitamin A capsules prevents blindness in children, ensures normal growth, reduces all types of child mortality by 24 per cent and significantly reduces mortality from measles, diarrhoea and pneumonia," Health and Family Welfare Minister Zahid Maleque told the inaugural function of the countrywide campaign in Dhaka, reports BSS.

Under the campaign, children aged between six months and 11 months were given vitamin A-plus capsule with blue colour while children aged between 12 and 59 months were administered vitamin A-plus with red colour on the day.

Maleque urged the people to feed their children vitamin A-plus capsule for ensuring that not a single child is left out of getting the vitamin capsules.

"We can cut 24 per cent child mortality from the country through successful implementation of the programme," the minister said.

“Blindness problem has reduced significantly in the country due to feeding of vitamin A-plus capsules,” he added.

After independence of the country, over 4 per cent children suffered from blindness for vitamin A deficiency but now only 0.01 per cent children suffer from blindness problem, Maleque said.

A total of 240,000 volunteers and 40,000 health workers worked in the countrywide campaign to administer Vitamin A capsules at all health complexes and mobile health centres throughout the day, the health ministry sources said.

Vitamin A deficiency is a serious threat to both mother and child health, they said, adding that the impact of vitamin A deficiency is not only limited to blindness but also increases death risk by causing various diseases.