The Department of Maternal and Child Health, Ministry of Health, has just issued an official dispatch to deploy the campaign of vitamin A supplementation combined with deworming for children, phase 1, implemented in June nationwide.
Vitamin A plays an important role in the overall health and development of children. Image: Nutritionintl.
In this campaign, in 22 difficult mountainous provinces, each child aged 6-59 months was given 1 dose of vitamin A, and children aged 24-59 months were periodically dewormed. In the remaining 41 provinces and cities, the Ministry of Health organized a dose of vitamin A for children aged 6-35 months old. The source of medicine used in the campaign was aided by the Vitamin Angel Organization (USA).
Based on actual conditions, the Ministry of Health requested to develop a specific plan and proactively organize appropriate campaigns to ensure that all children in the age group are supplemented with vitamin A and dewormed according to the instructions.
The Ministry of Health assigned the Institute of Nutrition to assume the prime responsibility for, and develop a plan to allocate vitamin A and provide professional guidance to implement the vitamin A supplement campaign. develop a plan to distribute deworming drugs and provide professional guidance to implement deworming activities for children in the campaign.
Vitamin A plays an important role in the overall health and development of children. Every year, the Ministry of Health organizes a campaign to provide high-dose vitamin A supplements for more than 6 million children aged 6-54 months on a national scale (there are 2 times a year: Phase 1 in June and phase 6 in December). During these campaigns, children of this age were given high-dose vitamin A capsules.
According to medical experts, in order to prevent micronutrient deficiency, besides the short-term solution is taking supplements of micronutrient products (such as high-dose vitamin A capsules, multi-micronutrient tablets, etc.) If the medium term solution is to use foods fortified with micronutrients, the long term and fundamental solution is to improve meal quality.
Therefore, units need to strengthen communication, encourage people to use a variety and combination of foods for daily meals; prioritize the selection and use of foods rich in micronutrients and perform exclusive breastfeeding in the first 6 months of life as recommended by WHO and the Ministry of Health.
TS
