Over 20m children to be fed vitamin A plus capsules on June 1

The National Vitamin A-plus campaign is to be conducted on June 1 with a target to feed vitamin A-plus capsules to over 22.2 million children, aged between six months and 59 months, 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,”  Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam told a press briefing in Dhaka on Thursday.

The vitamin A plus campaign will be conducted later in cyclone-hit coastal regions, he said.   

Under the campaign, 2.7 million children, aged between six months and 11 months, will be given blue-coloured vitamin A-plus capsules while 19.5 million children, aged between 12 and 59 months, will be administered red-coloured capsules on the day.

Khurshid urged people to feed vitamin A-plus capsules to their children to ensure 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 campaign,” he added.

Blindness problems have reduced significantly in the country due to feeding of vitamin A-plus capsules, he added.

After the independence of the country, over 4 per cent of children suffered from blindness for vitamin A deficiency, while now only 0.01 per cent of children suffer from blindness, the DGHS DG added.

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

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