Staff Reporter :
A nationwide vitamin A-plus campaign will be conducted on Saturday with a target to administer to over 2.22 crore children within the age bracket of 6-59 months.
Vitamin A-plus capsules will be given to the children to prevent childhood blindness and reduce child mortality in the country.
Meanwhile, officials said the children living in areas affected by cyclone Remal will be administered the capsule after the vaccination centres are restored, officials of the Directorate General of Health Services announced at a press conference at the directorate’s office on Thursday.
Health officials said Bangladesh currently has about 27 lakh children aged 6–11 months and 1.95 crore aged 12-59 months.
The vaccination will be administered at a total of 120,000 vaccination centres across the country.
DGHS Director General Prof. Dr. ABM Khurshid Alam said in the event that 1,224 vaccination centres in coastal areas were affected by cyclone Remal. Vaccination in these centres will be conducted after the restoration works are complete.
He also said, “Giving vitamin A capsules aims to prevent blindness and ensure normal growth of the body.
It also significantly reduced deaths from measles, diarrhoea, and pneumonia by reducing all-cause mortality by 24 percent” “Eligible children should be brought to the centres after being fed a full stomach.
apsule administrators should cut the mouth of the vitamin-A capsule with scissors and feed all the liquid medicine inside it. Children should not be force-fed the capsule while they are crying”, added the DGHS official.
A total of 40,000 health workers and about 2.40 lakh volunteers will take part in the campaign.