The government on Sunday launched the National Vitamin A Plus Campaign with a target of administering Vitamin A capsules to 24 million children aged between six and 59 months across Bangladesh in a single day.
The programme has resumed this year after a break of 15 months. Children were last administered March 2025. The campaign is supposed to be held twice a year.
Health and Family Welfare minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Hossain Bakul inaugurated the campaign at the Shaheed Abu Sayeed Convention Hall of Bangladesh Medical University in the capital.
Speaking to reporters after the inauguration, the minister said that while Vitamin A supplementation was essential, no vitamin could replace the benefits of a mother’s breast milk.
‘Children should not only receive Vitamin A capsules but also be breastfed. Newborns must be fed colostrum immediately after birth. There is no vitamin greater than a mother’s first milk,’ he said.
He said that Vitamin A strengthens children’s immune systems and plays an important role in preventing measles and other infectious diseases.
He said that the government had procured 26 million red and blue Vitamin A capsules through UNICEF, of which 25.5 million capsules had already been distributed nationwide for the campaign.
‘The target is to provide Vitamin A capsules to 24 million children across the country,’ he said.
Responding to a question about the quality of the capsules, Sakhawat said the vaccines and supplements met international standards.
He added that children who missed receiving the capsules on the campaign day would have an opportunity to receive them later.
According to health officials, Vitamin A supplementation was integrated into the Expanded Programme on Immunization in 1995 and became a separate National Vitamin A Plus Campaign in 2003 under the supervision of the Institute of Public Health Nutrition.
From 2011 until March 2025, the campaign was implemented under the National Nutrition Services operational plan of the Directorate General of Health Services.
This year’s first round of the campaign was conducted from 8:00am to 4:00pm on Sunday, with Vitamin A capsules distributed through 110,000 fixed outreach centres and 500 mobile centres, including launch terminals, ferry ghats, railway stations and bus terminals across the country.
