'Spread Vitamin A campaign all over the country'
The Vitamin A campaign has reduced various health related risks among children under five in the country, but the campaign needs to reach the underprivileged areas, speakers at a roundtable said on Monday.
The campaign needs to be spread to the urban slums, haor areas (wetland), hill tracts and tea garden, they said at the roundtable styled ‘Eliminating Vitamin A deficiency among children under five in Bangladesh’.
More than one speakers also stressed increasing intake of food fortified with Vitamin A to reduce its deficiency.
Prothom Alo organised the roundtable in association with Nutrition International at the daily’s Karwan Bazar office.
The Vitamin A campaign has contributed to reducing night blindness to 0.04 percent in recent years from 3.76 percent in 1983, said Institute of Public Health Nutrition’s deputy programme manager Gazi Ahmad Hasan and Nutrition International’s technical manager Md Mafijul Islam in their presentation.
The campaign has also contributed to reduction in mortality rate of children under five years (per one thousand live births) to 41 in 2013 from 133 in 1994 and stunting to 31 per cent in 2017 from 43 per cent in 2007, they added.
Directorate General of Health Services’ line director Nur Mohammad stressed Vitamin A intake of mothers during pregnancy as the deficiency of children starts before their birth.
“Students of school, madrasa and college should be made aware of nutrition issues so that they can spread the message through their family members,” he added.
Pointing out the importance of Vitamin A, Nutrition International’s vice president for strategy and growth Brian Harrigan said that Vitamin A deficiency can be life threatening.
Nazma Shahin, a professor at the food and nutrition institute of Dhaka University, said, “We have success stories but 20 per cent children are still out of the Vitamin A campaign’s coverage. Efforts should be sped up to bring 100 per cent children under its coverage.”
DGHS director Md Abdus Salam suggested that expectant and lactating mothers should take green leafy vegetables, colourful fruits, small fish, milk and egg as much as possible so that their children get enough Vitamin A.
Hellen Keller International country director Aminuzzaman Talukder, Institute of Public Health Nutrition director Md Kholilur Rahman, BSMMU’s professor Md Sayedur Rahman, deputy programme manager of National Nutrition Services M Islam Bulbul, Global Affairs Canda’s health technical specialist Momena Khatun, Nutrition International country director Jaki Hasan, UNICEF nutrition specialist Mahiuddin Khan Sadi, and Nutrition International’s Mahmud Kazi Mohammad, among others, also spoke at the programme.
Prothom Alo associate editor Abdul Quayyum moderated the roundtable.