Around 3.2 million children between six and 59 months across the country will be administered vitamin A supplements in a two-day nationwide campaign scheduled for Thursday and Friday.

Every year, the Ministry of Health and Population launches the nationwide vitamin A supplementation campaign in the third week of April.

The Nutrition Section of the Family Welfare Division of the Department of Health Services, which is responsible for running the campaign, said that 2.9 million children between one and five years of age will also be administered deworming tablets.

“All necessary preparations for the campaign have been completed,” said Lila Bikram Thapa, chief of the section. “We will request all parents of eligible children to ensure that they get vitamin A supplements and deworming tablets.”

Around 52,000 female community health volunteers are deployed nationwide for the campaign conducted in April and October every year since 2003.

It is because of supplementation campaigns like these that night blindness among children, which used to be very high until two decades ago, has been almost eliminated, according to Thapa.

Vitamin A deficiency is responsible for nearly a fourth of global child mortality from measles, diarrhoea and malaria.

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

Deworming tablets are crucial to preventing many childhood diseases and reducing the mortality rate among children under five, according to child health experts.

The vitamin A supplementation and deworming campaign had coverage rates of over 94 percent, the highest among all health campaigns run in the country in the past. However, the coverage declined to just over 80 percent in recent years.

In 2020, a lot of children missed out on vitamin A supplementation and deworming because of the pandemic.

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.