The Ministry of Health and Population is conducting a two-day nationwide campaign to administer vitamin A supplements and deworming tablets on children under five years of age on October 24 and 25.

The campaign will be crucial in preventing many childhood diseases and reducing the mortality rate among children under five.

“This is a very crucial campaign and no children should be deprived of the vitamin supplement and deworming tablets,” said Kedar Parajuli, chief of the nutrition section at the Family Welfare Division under the Department of Health Services.

“We urge all parents of children under five to make sure that their children receive vitamin A supplement and deworming tablets from the distribution points in their localities.”

The ministry aims to administer vitamin A supplement to over 2.75 million children aged between six months and five years. Over 2.4 million children above 12 months will be given the deworming tablets.

“All preparation including orientation training for female community health volunteers and other health workers have been completed, and we have also supplied vitamin A and deworming tablets to all local units,” said Parajuli.

More than 51,000 female community health volunteers serving throughout the country will be deployed for the campaign. The Health Ministry has been conducting the campaign twice every year—in April and in October—since 2003.

It is because of supplementation campaigns like these that the night blindness problems among children, which used to be very high until two decades ago, have been almost eliminated, said Parajuli.

The vitamin A campaign is a success story in Nepal, as it has helped tackle the issue of vitamin A deficiency among children, which used to be a major public health problem in the country. It is estimated that regular supplementation campaigns have reduced deaths among children under five by 23 percent.

These supplementation programmes, officials say, have the coverage rates of over 94 percent, the highest among all health campaigns run in the country.

But in 2020, a lot of children may have missed out on vitamin A supplementation and deworming because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The United Nations Children’s Fund in its report said that worldwide only two out of five children received the life-saving benefit of vitamin A supplementation in 2020.

Child health experts say that vitamin A supplementation campaigns are important for the overall growth of children and for protecting them from various infectious diseases.

According to the World Health Organization, vitamin A deficiency causes visual impairment (night blindness) and vulnerability to illnesses like measles and diarrhoea among children. The supplement boosts immunity and ensures children’s natural growth.

“It is a proven fact that vitamin A supplementation reduces 23 percent of the under five child mortality rate,” said Dr Shyam Raj Upreti, a former director at the erstwhile Child Health Division and now known as Family Welfare Division. “Well-nourished children have stronger immunity, which helps to fight infections. Malnourished children are always at risk of infections.”