Bangladesh children given vitamins to avoid blindness

Twenty million Bangladeshi children were taking their vitamins on Saturday in a national campaign to prevent childhood blindness and deaths. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes Vitamin A deficiency as the leading cause of preventable childhood blindness and a major public health concern.

In the developing world, large numbers of children are poorly nourished and lack adequate food rich in Vitamin. Bangladesh is home to an estimated 40,000 blind children most of whom live in the remotest rural areas of the country. Various studies across the globe show that one-third to half of childhood blindness is either preventable or treatable1 and that cataract is the leading treatable cause of blindness in children. “Vitamin A is essential in the development of healthy and intelligent children,” Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said at the campaign’s launch, adding: “Without healthy children, a nation cannot prosper.”

Thousands of trained government health workers and volunteers handed out the pills to under five year olds at 120,000 health facilities, schools and other sites in the six monthly National Vitamin A Plus campaign. “More than 400,000 health workers and volunteers are working to make this initiative a success,” Fatima Parveen Chowdhury, head of International Poverty and Health Network, which was involved in the campaign, told Reuters news agency. “We have opened mobile centres at bus stands, railway stations, [campaign] launch terminals and airports to ensure that every child receives the necessary dosage of Vitamin A,” she added.

Night blindness or not being able to see clearly in low light because of vitamin A deficiency is an issue for many countries in Asia, but Bangladesh is making inroads. The National Vitamin A Plus campaign provides 95 percent of children under five with Vitamin A supplements. But as well as saving sight, Vitamin A can also save lives. An estimated 30,000 children’s lives are saved each year in Bangladesh by Vitamin A supplementation according to UNICEF.

But, as Dr M A Muhit, President of the Child Sight Foundation CSF, points out, the problems are much deeper and varied. “It is not only a case of a blind child but with it comes the problems of child marriage, malnutrition, lack of education, the negative attitude of the society towards disabled people, rehabilitation etc. Funding is another huge problem.” The World Health Organization has made preventing visual impairment and blindness in childhood an international priority.

But many countries do not record information about incidence and causes to enable them to assess what needs to be done to prevent and treat visual impairment problems. Visual impairment in children can have an impact on their performance at school, as well as their social interaction and development. Promoting eye health in children and ensuring early detection of visual impairment is an important part of general eye health and child health strategies.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children