Vitamin A plus campaign on Nov 14

Over 2.14 crore children, aged between six months and five years, will be fed Vitamin A-plus capsules under a national campaign on November 14.

State Minister for Health and Family Welfare Jahid Malek came up with the announcement on Thursday while talking to reporters at the Secretariat.

Children, aged between six and 11 months, will be given the blue-coloured high-powered Vitamin A capsules, while children, aged between 12 to 59 months, will receive the red-coloured ones.

The minister said children will be fed the vitamin A capsule at some 120,000 permanent health centres across the country. “Three volunteers will work at each centre to make the campaign a success,’’ he said adding that the rate of children’s night-blindness in the country has come down blow one percent following the distribution of Vitamin A-plus regularly.

Besides, an additional 20,000 mobile centres will be set up at bus stands, railway stations, launch terminals, airports, ferry terminals, bridge toll centres and kheya ghats, and these will remain open from 8am to 4pm to make sure that all children are fed the capsules, he said.

Malek said Vitamin A also increases the immunity of children and reduce the complexity of diarrhoea and measles.Healt