22.6mn children to get vitamin A plus capsules

The “National Vitamin A Plus” campaign, which aims to provide some 22.6 million children with the supplementary capsule, has launched.

These capsules will be administered to children aged between six and 59 months to prevent childhood blindness and reduce child mortality. A total of 120,000 vaccination centres are being set up to administer the capsule.

A press release from the Department of Health Services said that children aged 6-11 months will be administered blue capsules and children aged 12-59 months will be administered red capsules at the district, Upazila and union levels.

The department says that, by administering vitamin A to 98 percent of children twice a year through the Vitamin A Plus campaign, the rate of vitamin A deficiency blindness has decreased to below 1 percent. The child mortality rate has also dropped.

“To maintain this success, the national Vitamin A Plus campaign has continued to administer vitamin A capsules to all children aged six to 59 months.”

Children should be taken to the center on a full stomach to be administered the vitamin A plus capsule. The health worker or volunteer at the vaccination centre will cut the capsule with scissors and feed the child all the liquid inside. Children should not be given the capsules by force or while they are crying.

A round-the-clock control room will be open in every Upazila, district and centre on the day of the campaign to monitor the programme.