Nationwide Vitamin ‘A’ plus campaign begins Oct 4

The national Vitamin ‘A’ plus campaign will start across the country from October 4 and to be continued till October 17 for feeding vitamin A plus capsules to all children aged between six and 59 months.

Line Director Dr SM Mustafizur Rahman of the Institute of Public Health Nutrition (IPHN) informed the media at the IPHN auditorium in the city’s Mohakhali area.

To contain the spread of Covid-19 infection, the campaign will be held at different centers across the country on different days during this period. Date for any certain area will be announced locally three days earlier.

“We postponed this campaign in June due to the Covid-19 outbreak. We feared that we could not bring all children under the coverage. We hope to reach more than 90 percent of children this time,” said Dr Rahman.

He further said all the workers involved in the campaign will be provided with surgical masks to stay safe from the virus infection.

According to officials, health workers will also go to people’s doorstep to feed the capsules to those children who will miss it during the campaign.

Some 2.4 million children aged between six to12 months will be given blue capsules, while around 19.3 million children aged between one to five years will be given red capsules.

Children aged below six months or over five years or with any kind of illness should not be given the capsule.

Health workers will also go home to home to feed the capsules to those children who miss the campaign, officials said.

Source: BSS