State facing shortage of Vitamin A

KOCHI: Kerala is facing a shortage of Vitamin A, which is administered to children below five as a supplementation. For the last two months, there has been an acute shortage of the vitamin as the supply from the Central pool has decreased. ‘’There is an overall shortage of Vitamin A. However, we have no information when we would be getting enough Vitamin A supplements,’’  State Immunisation Officer Dr N Sreedhar said.He also said the shortage of the Vitamin A has been intimated to the Union Health and Family Welfare. Ministry.  Asked about the sudden reason for the shortage, Sreedhar said the details were not yet known.  ‘’Normally, the state does not demand for the supply. The Centre already has a projection about the need of the state,’’ he said. ‘’We have three regional sites at Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode from where the vitamin is supplied to the hospitals and the primary health centres. Normally, when there is a shortage in one of the regional centres, it is met from other places,’’ Sreedhar said. Ernakulam DMO R Sudhakaran also said there was no information about the availability of the Vitamin A in the state. ‘’There is no information from Delhi as to when the shortage would be overcome,’’ he said and added that the shortage in the district was felt from November. He also hoped that the shortage would be overcome at the earliest.  Under the Vitamin A supplementation programme, sponsored by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, children between nine months to three years are given six monthly doses of Vitamin A.