Staff Reporter:
A nationwide Vitamin A campaign is set to begin on June 28, aiming to provide the life-saving supple-ment to more than 2.35 crore children aged between six and 59 months after a gap of nearly 14 months.
The campaign, designed to prevent childhood blindness and combat malnutrition, will be conducted from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm across the country. However, child-to-child searching activities will continue for four additional days in hard-to-reach areas across 714 wards under 290 unions in 58 upazilas of 12 districts.
Dr Mohammad Yunus Ali, Director of the National Nutrition Services (NNS) under the Institute of Pub-lic Health Nutrition (IPHN), yesterday said that all preparations for the campaign have been completed.
The campaign targets a total of 23,514,972 children. Of them, 2,838,794 children aged six to 11 months will receive blue Vitamin A capsules, while 20,676,178 children aged 12 to 59 months will be given red Vitamin A capsules.
Dr Yunus Ali said around 120,000 centers have been prepared nationwide for the campaign, most of which are regular Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) centers. Besides, 500 mobile centres have been set up at launch terminals, ferry ghats, railway stations, bus terminals and other public places to facilitate access.
“Vitamin A capsules have already reached the field level. We are taking maximum preparations to en-sure successful implementation of the campaign,” he said, expressing hope that parents and guardians would bring their children to nearby centres to receive the capsules.
