VIJAYAWADA: The anganwadi centres and public health centres (PHCs) across Krishna district have come across a shortage of Vitamin A supply, as the last batch supplied in 2018 has been exhausted.
Owing to the shortage of Vitamin A, a crucial supplement for infants, the parents are being forced to rely on private hospitals bearing high cost.
Speaking to TNIE, District Immunisation Officer M Amrutha said, “We didn’t receive a new stock of the Vitamin A solution from the State government in a long time. Now only some doses are remnant in the sub-centres or hospitals from the stock that was supplied. With this shortage at hand, we cannot provide any to the anganwadi centres.”
The last stock of 8,278 bottles of Vitamin A solution was supplied to the district on 14 March 2018, where each 100 ml bottle could be used for administering about 50 children (aged above one year) or 100 children (aged below one year). Since then, the stock has not been replenished by the State officials. According to the sources, almost all the stock went dry in the month of February this year.
On the other hand, Project Director ICDS Krishna district K Krishna Kumari told TNIE, “Earlier we used to have a good stock of Vitamin A supplements in the anganwadi centres. But after the establishment of urban health centres, the demand for the supplement fell in the urban anganwadis and hence, the supply was gradually stopped.”
Essential for infants
Vitamin A should be administered to children aged between nine months and five years, once in every six months, in order to keep blindness and other eye-related problems at bay. At least nine doses of Vitamin A supplement should be administered
Due to the shortage of supply, majority of children are missing on their dosage as only some can afford private hospitals, where a single dose costs around a thousand rupees