The vitamin-A plus campaign will be held on Saturday across Bangladesh with a target to feed at least 21 million children aged between six months and five years the life-saving capsules.
The Unicef says vitamin-A prevents night blindness and enhances immune system of the children helping them to fight off infections, a major child killer.
The government conducts this campaign twice a year and attaches great importance as it has cut the rate of night blindness to 0.04 percent now from 3.76 percent in 1982.
British medical journal The Lancet said this campaign can help to cut 24 percent child deaths.
Usually an additional de-worming tablet was being administered to children between two and five years.
But the government decided not to feed de-worming pills with vitamin-A from now on as rumours of children falling ill maligned the March campaign.
Feeding de-worming pills in empty stomach can sometimes cause slight discomfort and government officials found parents rush to the hospital in panic. It eventually affected crucial vitamin-A campaign, investigations found.
Health minister AFM Ruhal Haque, before the campaign in a press briefing on Wednesday, had said awareness messages on exclusive breastfeeding would be disseminated during the Vitamin-A plus campaign at the government’s 120,000 permanent and 20,000 mobile centres.
The centres would remain open from 8am to 4pm, he said.
