State Minister for Health Md Murad Hasan has admitted to ‘problems’ in capsules that caused postponement of Saturday’s vitamin A Plus campaign across Bangladesh, blaming an Indian pharmaceutical company for the ‘faulty’ capsules.
Published : 19 Jan 2019, 12:06 AM
Mumbai-based Aztec Pharmaceuticals even pursued Bangladesh into buying its capsules by starting a legal battle, the state minister has said.
The authorities on Thursday postponed the campaign citing ‘unavoidable’ reasons.
But officials said they postponed the campaign due to “problems in the textures of the capsules”.
More than 20 million children between six months and 11 months were supposed to get one blue-coloured capsule while those between 12 months to 59 months one high-powered red-coloured dose in the vitamin A Plus campaign on Saturday.
Liquid vitamin A is squeezed into child’s mouth by cutting off the tip of the capsules.
After checking some capsules in Kishoreganj on Friday, Murad said the problems were found in red capsules supplied by Aztec.
“These capsules got attached to the bottles. We will take necessary steps after testing the quality of the capsules,” the state minister said and added there was no problem with the blue capsules supplied by a Bangladeshi firm.
A Directorate General of Health Services official told bdnews24.com on Thursday that tests confirmed there was no problem with quality.
“We didn’t want to give the job to the Indian firm. The government was forced to award them the job after they started a case,” the state minister said about the contract with Aztec.
A Bangladeshi firm had secured the job initially after the process to buy the capsules for the campaign started in 2016, but Aztec took it away by starting the legal battle, according to Murad.
Supplementary nutrition in the form of a vitamin A capsule is vital for good infant and child health, growth, and development.
This is also accepted as an essential part of child survival programmes as one capsule of vitamin A given at least twice a year to children 6 to 59 months of age can reduce under-5 child mortality by 24 percent.
Vitamin A strengthens children’s immune system, reduce frequency of diarrhea and measles, and prevent night blindness.
Bangladesh has cut night blindness to 0.04 percent in recent years from 3.76 percent in 1982 through this campaign twice a year.