Vitamin A campaign launched for 9.5 million children

A three-day nationwide campaign to provide some 9.5 million children aged six to 59 months in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with Vitamin A supplements was launched on Friday in Kinkole, 30 km east of the capital, Kinshasa, by Arthur Z'Ahidi Ngoma, one of the country's four vice-presidents. According to the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), who in collaboration with Congolese authorities are carrying out the initiative, recent studies have found that 60 percent of Congolese children aged five and under suffer from Vitamin A deficiency, which is an underlying cause of 40 percent of childhood deaths in the country. In an effort to remedy this, the DRC has, since 1998, organised supplemental Vitamin A campaigns in tandem with anti-polio efforts. For a sustainable long-term solution to Vitamin A deficiency, UNICEF has called for the implementation of a national strategy promoting diets rich in Vitamin A, in addition to supplemental campaigns. Furthermore, UNICEF recommends breastfeeding until six months of age to bolster children's immune systems. According to UNICEF, Vitamin A is essential for the proper functioning of the immune system. "The improvement of a child's nutritional status by the provision of supplemental Vitamin A to children aged six to 59 months increases survival rates spectacularly," UNICEF reported on Friday. It added that the risks of mortality were thereby reduced some 50 percent for measles, some 40 percent for diarrhoea, and some 25 percent to 35 percent overall. The campaign was made possible by a US $1-million UNICEF donation and the provision of some 17 million Vitamin A capsules worth $300,000 by the Canadian government. Other partners, including the US-funded BASICS and MOST, have also lent their support to the Congolese Health Ministry in carrying out immunisation campaigns. [For more on UNICEF's Vitamin A campaigns worldwide go to www.unicef.org]