Child rights activists, NGOs, international donor agencies and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, have successfully provided life-saving vitamin A doses to 19 million children younger than five.
According to government estimates, vitamin A doses save the lives of more than 30,000 children annually in the impoverished nation, while reducing illness in tens of thousands more.
Vitamin A deficiency increases the risk of child deaths from such diseases as measles and diarrhoea.
In Bangladesh these infections contribute to more than one-third of deaths among children under five, says the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF).
"This campaign [of 10 May] marks another milestone towards attaining the global goal for the sustainable elimination of vitamin A deficiency by the year 2010," said Fatima Parveen Chowdhury, director of the Institute of Public Health Nutrition (IPHN) within the Health Ministry.
"A simple vitamin A capsule, each costing only one taka [US$1 = 69 taka] can increase a child's chances of survival by up to 25 percent," Iyorlumun Uhaa, acting country representative for UNICEF Bangladesh, explained.
Health workers and volunteers also distributed de-worming tablets to 17 million children aged between two and five.
The campaign was conducted from 140,000 sites in health centres, schools, and bus, boat and train stations across the country.
Essential for child survival
Vitamin A is essential to the immune system. The supplements increase children's resistance to disease, as well as improving their chances for survival, growth and development, according to UNICEF.
Another factor is night blindness - a sign of severe malnutrition among children. Night blindness in 1 percent or more children is considered a serious national health problem, say health experts.
According to Helen Keller International and IPHN surveys, the rate of child night blindness in Bangladesh is about 0.2 percent.
 Photo: Shamsuddin Ahmed/IRIN  |
| Each year, 277,000 children in Bangladesh do not live long enough to see their fifth birthday |
"Our food generally is deficient in essential nutrients. Also, the rate of various infections among our children is very high. These contribute to high child mortality and morbidity in Bangladesh. In a low nutrition and high infection society as ours, children need to be protected against death and diseases through supplementation of extra nutrition and protection. Vitamin A provides that," she said.
"If we withdraw the campaign now, chances are that severe child malnutrition might begin to revive to rates of 20 years ago," the UNICEF official added.
Bangladesh conducts two vitamin A supplementation campaigns each year, with the next one likely in October.
Improving the vitamin A status of children increases their chances of survival, cutting measles fatalities by up to 50 percent, diarrhoea fatalities by 40 percent and overall mortality by 25 percent, according to UNICEF.
According to UNICEF's State of the World's Children 2007 report, Bangladesh ranks 55 out of 190 (where one is the worst) in the world in child mortality rates. The infant (under-one) mortality rate in 2006 was 52 per 1,000 live births, and under-five rate was 69 per 1,000 live births.
Each year 4,013,000 children are born, of whom 277,000 do not live to see their fifth birthday, according to the government.
Bangladesh has three measures of high child malnutrition, including wasting (too thin) at 11.4 percent, stunting (low height for age) at 39.3 percent and underweight (low weight for age) at 46 percent, a 2005 HKI survey stated.
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