Vitamin A plus campaign conducted across country successfully: DGHS

The National Vitamin A-plus campaign was conducted across the country with feeding over 2 crore children under 5-year age to prevent childhood blindness and reduce child mortality.

"Vitamin A-plus campaign was conducted across the country successfully . . . we have launched massive awareness programmes to make the campaign a success," Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Prof Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam told BSS today.

Feeding Vitamin A capsules prevents blindness in children, ensures normal growth, reduces all types of child mortality by 24 percent and significantly reduces mortality from measles, diarrhoea and pneumonia, he added.

The Vitamin A plus campaign will be conducted later in cyclone-hit coastal regions and flood hit upazilas of Sylhet division, he said.

Under the campaign, 27 lakh children, aged between six months and 11 months, were given blue-colored vitamin A-plus capsules while 1.95 crore children, aged between 12 and 59 months, were administered red-colored capsules on the day.
 
People brought their children in booths of the countrywide campaign for feeding vitamin A-plus capsules, the DGHS DG added.

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

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, 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.