Campaign against night blindness begins

Srikakulam: Additional Joint Collector P Rajanikantha Rao said that night blindness in children could be prevented through administration of Vitamin A drops.

He administered the drops to children at a programme organised by the Medical and Health Department at Vambay Colony here on Monday. On this occasion, he said Vitamin A was essential for prevention of night blindness among children. He called upon the parents to get the drops administered to children below five years of age.

Children in the age group of nine months to five years should be administered Vitamin A nine times every six months, he said. The drops is being made available free of cost at the Health Centres and Anganwadi Centres from Monday to December 20, he said and urged the parents to utilise this opportunity.

There were approximately two lakh children below five years in the district and 10,488 bottles of Vitamin A were kept ready for administering to the children, he said. The medicine would be administered to children at the Primary Health Centres, Cluster Health Centres and Sub-Centres in the district, he said.

The Additional Joint Collector later distributed essential commodities to parents at Vambay Colony and Burma Colony.
Additional District Medical and Health Officer Dr M Sarada, ICDS project director Chakradhar Rao and others participated in the programme.

‘Vitamin A vital for children’
Kakinada: A massive programme to administer Vitamin A drops to children to prevent night blindness began in East Godavari district under the auspices of the Medical and Health Department on Monday.

A week-long programme aimed at controlling night blindness and other eye ailments in children of age group of nine months to five years, taken up by the National Health Mission, to cover nearly four lakh children was inaugurated at Urban Health Centre at Racherlapeta in Kakinada on Monday.

On this occasion, District Collector Neetu Prasad said Vitamin A drops were administered to children in the first phase in July and the second phase would continue till December 20. She advised the parents to get the Vitamin A drops administered to their children to prevent night blindness.

She further said there were 4,22,197 children in the age group of nine months to five years in the district and 7,69,709 ml Vitamin A drops were kept ready to cover these children in all the villages and municipalities. She requested the Medical and Health Department officials to give wide publicity so that parents could get the drops administered to the children.

The drops would also be available at Primary Health Centres (PHCs) every Wednesday and at sub-centres on every Saturday.

Zilla Parishad chairman N Rambabu said Vitamin A drops should be administered to children to prevent sight-related problems and requested the officials to cover all Anganwadi centres in the district.

Kakinada city MLA V Venkateswara Rao called upon the parents to follow the guidelines of the doctors to avoid health problems in the children.

State Immunisation observer Dr JVVRK Prasad, District Medical and Health Officer (DMHO) Dr Savithramma, Additional DMHO Dr Pavan Kumar, District Immunisation Officer Dr Anitha, DRDA project director D Chandrasekhar Raju, Kakinada Municipal Commissioner Govinda Swamy, ICDS project director P Vijayalakshmi and others attended.