Bangladesh ambitious plan to reach Vitamin A to 19mi children
Posted on | mei 31, 2011 | No Comments
Bangladesh in an ambitious plan will dispense of Vitamin A doses to nearly 19 million children aged below five years from Sunday. In a nationwide campaign, thousands of volunteers, also school students will provide life-saving Vitamin A supplements to combat chronic deficiency, which cause night blindness, a sign of severe malnutrition.
Health workers and volunteers from 150,000 health centers, schools, and buses, country boats and train stations will also distribute de-worming tablets to 17 million children aged between two and five to reduce child growth retardation, writes bdnews24.com.
Apart from night blindness, vitamin A deficiency increases the risk of diseases like measles and diarrhea, both contributing to more than a third of child deaths in Bangladesh.
An estimated vitamin A doses annually save the lives of more than 30,000 children in Bangladesh, said Prof. Fatima Parveen Chowdhury, director of the Institute of Public Health Nutrition.
Quoting a national nutrition survey, the health official argues that night blindness among children has significantly declined from 3.7 percent two decades ago to 0.04 percent.
AUTHOR: Saleem Samad
URL: http://bangladeshwatchdog.blogspot.com
E-MAIL: saleemsamad [at] hotmail.com
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Tags: Bangladesh > child deaths > children > chronic deficiency > diarrhea > diseases > health centers > Health workers > malnutrition > measles > nationwide campaign > night blindness > Public Health Nutrition > supplements > vitamin A
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