LOK SABHA
The Committee of
Experts constituted to go into various aspects relating to Vitamin-A
Administration has submitted the report. Its salient findings/recommendations
are as under: -
(i) The magnitude
of Vitamin A deficiency has declined significantly, although it
exists as a public health problem in some areas.
(ii) The Committee
has endorsed the current policy of Vitamin A supplementation to
children between 9-36 months of age at 6 monthly intervals, for
the next five years. The policy should be reviewed thereafter.
(iii) The Committee
has recommended the discontinuation of the campaign mode for administration
of Vitamin A.
(iv) The Committee
has made some technical recommendations on issues like spoon size
for administering Vitamin A solution, use of Vitamin A during
pregnancy and lactation; involvement of NGOs for community mobilization
and increasing outreach; sensitisation of district administration
and media etc.
(v) The Committee
has recommended "special efforts" to improve coverage
with the entire package of reproductive and child health services,
at periodic intervals, in districts/regions where programme performance
is sub-optimal.
(vi) Regarding the
incidents of child deaths in Assam allegedly caused by Vitamin
A administration, the Committee, while noting that replacement
of 2 ml spoon by 5 ml cups during the campaign might have led
to overdosing in some cases, observed that the available evidence
suggested that majority of the children who died during and after
the Vitamin A campaign, had other pre-existing illness of sufficient
severity. The Committee further observed that the world-wide experience
showed that Vitamin A administered in accordance with the WHO
guidelines was not associated with risk of death.
The findings/recommendations
of the Committee have been shared with the States/UTs. The Government
of India has already advised all States to refrain from launching
campaigns not only for Vitamin A but also for other individual
interventions since campaigns have a tendency to divert the attention
of the entire system from regular essential services. Other recommendations
of the Committee will be implemented taking into consideration
the existing constraints and resource requirements.
This information
was given by the Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Shri
Shatrughan Sinha in a written reply to a question from Shri Mohan
Rawale in the Lok Sabha today.
