Vitamin A Plus campaign successfully carried out across the country: DGHS
Dhaka, 1 June 2024 (BSS) – To prevent child blindness and reduce infant mortality, the National Vitamin A Plus Campaign was launched across the country today, feeding over 20 million children under the age of five.
“The Vitamin A Plus campaign has been successfully conducted across the country. We have launched massive awareness programmes to make the campaign a success,” Director General of Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Professor Abul Bashar Mohammad Khurshid Alam told BSS today.
Giving vitamin A capsules can prevent blindness in children, ensure normal growth, reduce all types of child mortality by 24 percent and significantly reduce deaths due to measles, diarrhea and pneumonia, he added.
The Vitamin A Plus campaign will be carried out in the cyclone-hit coastal areas and flood-hit upazilas of Sylhet division at a later date, he said.
As part of the campaign, 2.7 million children aged 6 to 11 months were given blue Vitamin A Plus capsules on the day, while 19.5 million children aged 12 to 59 months were given red capsules.
People brought their children to the booths where a nationwide campaign was being carried out to give Vitamin A Plus capsules, the DGHS director added.
He added that after independence, over 4 percent of children were blind due to vitamin A deficiency, but today only 0.01 percent of children are blind.
Khurshid said a total of 240,000 volunteers and 40,000 health workers participated in the countrywide campaign and administered Vitamin A capsules at all health facilities and mobile health centres throughout the day.
Vitamin A deficiency is a serious threat to the health of mothers and children, health experts said, adding that the effects of vitamin A deficiency are not limited to blindness but also lead to a range of diseases and increased risk of death.
