Combining Vitamin A supplementation with life-saving immunization

Keeping children healthy

Lulutani Tembo
Baby Naomi is all smiles at Machinga District Hospital
UNICEF Malawi/2024/Tembo
15 March 2024

It’s a hot, humid morning at Machinga District Hospital. There is a long line of women and their children calmly seated on chairs leading into the immunization room for children under five years old. Inside the room, the infants remain calm until it’s their turn to get their pills and injections. 

One of the mothers in the room is Ellen Tembenu and her one-year-old baby Naomi. Her daughter had just received a little red pill called Vitamin A and giggled after taking it. 

“I know that Vitamin A helps my child to be healthy and can prevent her from getting sick often,” a cheerful Ellen says. 

The mother of four brags that she never skips hospital visits with her daughter. “That’s why my baby is strong; I always bring her for her routine check-ups. Sometimes I walk and ride a bike, but I never skip,” she explains. “Today, we also went to growth monitoring before receiving immunization. My child is a healthy 10kgs.”

The Ministry of Health, with funding from the Canadian government and support from UNICEF, recently combined Vitamin A supplementation with routine immunization for children under five. Prior to this, children would only receive Vitamin A supplementation during community campaigns that would occur twice a year. 

The Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) lead for Machinga District, Venna Mbewe, says the integration has so far positively impacted the children’s health. “We’re getting fewer cases of mothers coming to the hospital with complaints about their babies’ eyesight,” she says. The only downside is that we fear mothers who do not proactively bring their children to health facilities, including outreach and village clinic sessions, may have their children miss out on vitamin A supplements. That’s where the campaign gave us a much-needed boost,” she adds. 

Mondays and Tuesdays are usually the busiest days at the under-five clinic at Machinga District Hospital. Over 30 mothers gather there to ensure their children receive Vitamin A and life-saving vaccines such as polio, malaria, measles, and typhoid vaccines, among others. The combination helps decrease incidences of diarrhoea and measles in children and prevents blindness and hearing loss. Moreover, Vitamin A supplements can improve a child’s chance of survival by 12 to 24 per cent.

The Vitamin A is provided with support from the government of Canada
UNICEF Malawi/2024/Tembo
The Vitamin A is provided with support from the government of Canada

UNICEF nutrition specialist Lusungu Chitete says, “The integration of vitamin A supplementation in the immunization programme has proven to be a cost-effective strategy for reaching young children with life-saving services in all 29 districts of the country. In 2023 over half a million children received vitamin A supplements, hence improving their immunity to childhood illnesses.”

As for Ellen she also gives her baby Naomi nutritious food from the six food groups. “I give her porridge mixed with crushed groundnuts for breakfast and as a snack in the afternoon. I usually give her nsima for lunch and dinner, with veggies and small fish,” she describes proudly. “All I want is for my child to continue to grow healthy, get educated, independent, and maybe become a doctor in the future.”