The national vitamin A-plus campaign will be conducted on June 1 with a target to administer over 2.22 crore children within the age bracket of 6-59 months vitamin A-plus capsule to prevent childhood blindness and reduce child mortality in the country.
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.
According to the announcement, Bangladesh currently has about 27 lakh children aged 6-11 months and 1.95 crore aged 12-59 months.
The vaccination will be administered in a total of 120,000 vaccination centres across the country.
A total of 40,000 health workers and about 2.40 lakh volunteers will take part in it.
Speaking on the occasion, DGHS Director General Prof Dr ABM Khurshid Alam said 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 taking vitamin-A capsules prevents blindness, ensures normal growth of the body. It also significantly reduced deaths from measles, diarrhoea and pneumonia by reducing all-cause mortality by 24%.
Eligible children should be brought to the centres with a full stomach. Capsule 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.
