The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has decided not to distribute deworming tablets during the National Vitamin A Plus campaign, to be conducted throughout the country, following allegations that many children had become sick and even died after consuming the tablets during the last two campaigns.
The National Steering Committee for Vaccination, headed by Health Minister Professor Dr AFM Ruhal Hoque, unanimously decided to run the programmes separately.
Prof Khondoker Md Sifayet Ullah, Director General at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) told the Dhaka Tribune: “It is true that we will no longer distribute Vitamin A capsules and deworming tablets together, as there were allegations that many children had become sick and many had even died after consuming the Vitamin A and deworming tablets.”
He, however, claimed that several probe teams had found such allegations to be false.
Claiming that there was a “zero percent” chance of becoming sick from Vitamin A capsules, Prof Sifayet Ullah alleged that unscrupulous people were spreading rumours about the health ministry’s purchase of sub-standard vitamin capsules from a non-reputed Indian company. There is no truth to those claims, he said.
However, he admitted that scientific findings have indicated that de-worming tablets might cause vomiting and abdominal pain, while the hard form of de-worming capsules made it difficult for small children to swallow the medicine.
Under the new de-worming programme, the hard tablets will be replaced by easily chewable ones.
In a bid to regain people’s trust and boost the campaign, the national steering committee has also decided to run a mass awareness programme with the help of teachers, clergymen, political and social leaders. For many years, both Vitamin A capsules and de-worming tablets were provided together to the children during the campaign.
During the earlier campaigns, 22 million children between the ages of six months to five years benefited from one dose of Vitamin A capsule. Children above two years of age were administered a de-worming tablet.
Several members of the national steering committee told the Dhaka Tribune that Vitamin A Plus campaign was one of the most successful programmes run by health ministry.
Apart from helping to reduce malnutrition among children, the programme also saves thousands of children from night blindness. The campaign also raises awareness among pregnant mothers to consume more green leafy vegetables and fruits. Research has shown that Vitamin A reduces child mortality by 23 to 24 percent.
Currently, night blindness among children under 5 years is 0.66 percent, while the figure is 2.8 percent for pregnant mothers.
The Vitamin A Plus campaign is expected to commence in the first week of October. The date of de-worming campaign is yet to be finalised.