National Nutrition Week begins today

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 DHAKA, April 23, 2018 (BSS) – The National Nutrition Week began today aimed at creating awareness about the importance of nutrition for health which has an impact on development, productivity, economic growth and ultimately the national development.

Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury inaugurated week as the chief guest at city’s Osmani Memorial auditorium.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Mohammed Nasim, Food Minister Qamrul Islam and State minister for Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock Narayan Chandra Chanda were present there as special guests.

The theme of this week is ‘Think about Nutrition, if You Think about Food’.

“The prevalence of underweight child is going down remarkably.

Earlier, many children with malnutrition were seen on the street, but such scenario is rare nowadays, Matia said, adding chronic energy deficiency among non-pregnant women has also declined.

Currently, people with night blindness are almost unheard of due to massive and regular doses of Vitamin A among the children, which is a prove that there is no Vitamin A deficiency in the country, she said.

Nasim said the government has been running different campaigns to enrich the nutrition sector of the country including distributing essential drugs and vitamins like deworming tablets, distributing iron, folic acid and calcium among pregnant women and Calcium and vitamin D to the aged people at the public hospitals and running Vitamin A campaigns twice a year.

The health ministry is also running different awareness building programmes so that the people can become more aware of healthcare.

The food minister warned businessman man of stern actions if they do not stop food and drug adulteration.

Secretary of the health ministry (Health Services Department) Sirajul Haque Khan presided over the programme while Director General of Health Services Professor Dr Abul Kalam Azad was present.

The weeklong programmes include fair, procession, different programmes to create awareness among people on the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth days and essay and debate competitions and prize giving ceremony.