Vitamin ‘A’ plus campaign today

The government launch the National Vitamin ‘A’ Plus Campaign across Bangladesh today, aiming to provide Vitamin ‘A’ capsules to approximately 2,40,36,022 children aged between six months and 59 months to strengthen immunity and reduce malnutrition-related health risks. The campaign will be conducted from 8am to 4pm nationwide.

To ensure wider coverage in hard-to-reach areas, a child-to-child searching programme will continue for four days after the main campaign in 714 wards under 290 unions across 58 upazilas in 12 districts.
Organised with the support of the Ministry of Health and UNICEF Bangladesh, the campaign will administer two types of Vitamin ‘A’ capsules based on age.

Children aged six to 11 months will receive one blue capsule, while those aged 12 to 59 months will be given one high-potency red Vitamin ‘A’ capsule.

The capsules will be distributed through around 120,000 permanent centres and 500 temporary centres set up at busy locations, including bus terminals and ferry ghats. Trained health workers and volunteers will oversee the distribution process.

State Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr MA Muhit said the National Vitamin ‘A’ Plus Campaign plays a vital role in ensuring healthy child growth, strengthening immunity and reducing deaths linked to malnutrition.

He said the programme will operate at designated centres from 8am to 4pm on Sunday.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Husain will formally inaugurate the campaign at a function at the Abu Sayeed Convention Centre in Shahbagh on Sunday morning.

State Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr MA Muhit and the Prime Minister’s Special Assistant Dr SM Ziauddin Haider will attend the inaugural ceremony.

At the district and upazila levels, local Members of Parliament will launch the campaign alongside local administrations, while implementation at the grassroots level will be carried out by field workers and volunteers.

Civil Surgeons and Upazila Health and Family Planning Officers, together with their teams, will supervise local monitoring activities. The ministry has also instructed the officials concerned to complete field-level monitoring throughout the campaign.

Ahead of the programme, Sardar Md Sakhawat Husain urged all those involved to work sincerely to ensure the campaign’s success.

He also appealed to parents to take every child aged between six months and five years to the nearest campaign centre between 8am and 4pm on the campaign day to receive the Vitamin ‘A’ capsule.

Health officials said Vitamin ‘A’ not only helps prevent blindness associated with malnutrition but also strengthens children’s immune systems, protects them from prolonged diarrhoea and lowers the risk of child mortality.

Bangladesh has been administering Vitamin ‘A’ capsules to combat childhood blindness and malnutrition since 1973.