2 lakh children deprived of Vitamin A tablets in Nepal

Kathmandu: At least 2,00,000 children in Nepal below five-years-old have been deprived of Vitamin A capsules and de-worming tablets due to the ongoing agitation in the Terai region which has affected the two-day National Vitamin A Programme, health officials claimed today.

Under the programme, children between six months and five years of age are administered Vitamin A capsules, while children aged between one and five years are given de-worming tablets.

District Public Health Office chief at Dhanusha district Sachitananda Dev said that they failed to dispatch required medicines stored in Hetauda in Makawanpur, Pathalaiya in Bara and Bardibas in Mahottari districts to respective health posts due to the protests.

He said that the Vitamin A Programme would be continued in Dhanusa after the Deepawali festival if the situation improves.

According to the the District Public Health Office (DPHO) a total of 1,99,523 children below five years of age in Dhanusa are deprived of the facility as a result of the agitation.

Various health facilities in the district have been affected due to shortage of medicines as the protests continued in the southern Nepal.

Madhesis, the Indian-origin inhabitants of Nepal's Terai region, are protesting division of their ancestral homeland in the new Constitution. The agitation close to the main trading point near Raxaul has halted supply of essential goods, causing acute shortage of fuel in Nepal.

Over 40 people have died in the violent agitation.