DHAKA : The National Vitamin ‘A’ Plus Campaign will be held simultaneously across the country tomorrow.

Under this programme, the government has set a target of feeding Vitamin ‘A’ capsules to about 2,40,36,022 children aged 6 months to 59 months. The campaign will run from 8 am to 4 pm.

However, a child-to-child searching activity will be conducted in 714 wards of 290 unions of 58 upazilas in 12 districts in remote areas for four days after the campaign.

In this campaign, organised in association with the Ministry of Health and UNICEF Bangladesh, two types of capsules will be fed to children according to their age. Children aged 6 to 11 months will be given one blue capsule and children aged 12 to 59 months will be given one red high-potency vitamin 'A' capsule each.

These capsules will be distributed through about 120,000 permanent centres and 500 temporary centres in crowded places like bus terminals and ferry ghats across the country. Trained health workers and volunteers will be engaged in this work.

In this regard, State Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr MA Muhit told reporters that the National Vitamin 'A' Plus Campaign is very important for children to grow up healthy, increase their immunity and reduce the risk of malnutrition-related deaths.
 
The programme will continue at designated centres from 8 am to 4 pm on Sunday, he said.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Husain will inaugurate the Vitamin 'A' Capsule Campaign at a function at Abu Sayeed Convention Centre in city’s Shahbagh on Sunday morning.
 
State Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr MA Muhit and Prime Minister's Special Assistant Dr SM Ziauddin Haider will be present on the occasion.

In addition, local members of parliament (MPs) will inaugurate the Vitamin 'A' campaign along with the local administration at district and upazila levels, while the campaign will be implemented at the field level through field workers and volunteers.

Civil Surgeons and Upazila Health and Family Planning Officers (through their teams) at the district and upazila levels will take measures for monitoring at the local level. 

Apart from this, the ministry has instructed officials concerned to complete the monitoring work at the field level.

Ahead of the campaign, Sakhawat Husain urged all to work sincerely to make the Vitamin 'A' capsule campaign a success.

He also called upon parents to ensure that all children aged 6 months to 5 years in the family are fed Vitamin 'A' capsules by taking them to the nearest campaign centre between 8 am and 4 pm on the day.

Vitamin 'A' is very important for children because Vitamin 'A' not only protects children from malnutrition-related blindness but also increases children's immunity, protects children from long-term diarrhea and reduces the risk of child death.

To eliminate blindness and malnutrition in children, Vitamin 'A' capsules have been administered in Bangladesh since 1973.