No vitamin-A doses at private hospitals: Job Zachariah

Thiruvananthapuram: No private hospital in the state provides vitamin A supplements for children below five years as recommended by WHO, questioning the common notion that private hospitals provide better care than government hospitals. Speaking at a workshop for journalists here, Job Zachariah, chief, UNICEF (TN & Kerala), said that government hospitals are the only places where Vitamin-A doses are given.

Vitamin-A doses can reduce child mortality by 24 per cent. Vitamin-A deficiency, according to a 2009 WHO study, is responsible for the death of 8 per cent of children in South East Asia. Mr Zachariah said that vitamin-A was not available in private hospitals. Only 66 per cent of children below five years received vitamin-A dose, as per a rapid survey on children (RSOC) in 2013-2014. “Why can’t the private hospitals keep a stock of vitamin A doses? They charge the beneficiaries anyway,” he said.

The children should be administered the first two vitamin -A doses in the ninth month and in the 18th month and every six months between 2 and 4.5 years. The final ninth dose should be administered when the child turns five. Even though government hospitals administer vitamin A doses, normally half-yearly doses between 1.5-5 years are missed, he said.

The workshop was conducted by UNICEF and Child Rights Observatory (CRO). It also covered issues of child health such as the importance of breastfeeding. As per an RSOC study, the percentage of babies who get breastfed within an hour of birth is just 66 per cent, even though the state once declared itself to be the first ‘baby-friendly hospital state’ in the world.