National Vitamin A Program (NVAP)

Since its establishment, NTAG has emerged as one of the nation’s key technical assistance groups extending support to Nepal Government/Ministry of Health & Population (NG/MOHP) in implementing the National Vitamin A Program. Currently, NTAG is also providing technical assistance to NG/MOHP in the implementation of the post-partum dosing program under the National Vitamin A Program as well as integrating biannual vitamin A supplementation with de-worming of children aged one to five years. Supplementation occurs biannually on Baisakh 6th and 7th (mid-April) and Kartik 2nd and 3rd (mid-October).

Community Based- Integrated Management of Childhood Illnesses (CB-IMCI)

CB-IMCI is an integrated approach to managing childhood illness at the community level mostly through training sessions given to health workers involved in health care at the local level (Female Community Health Volunteers, Mother & Child Health Worker, Village Health Worker) and health institution staff such as medical doctors, nurses and paramedics.

Female Community Health Volunteer Endowment Fund (FCHV-EF)

FCHVs are true volunteers that have become the vital link between the community and HMG’s healthcare system. To keep motivation high, NTAG, with HMG MoH has promoted the implementation of an endowment fund consisting of an authorized capital which cannot be spent, with the interest accrued being placed in a separate savings account. The use of this interest will be determined by a management committee for things such as refreshments during vitamin A distribution days, review meeting expenses and other innovative ideas.

Case Treatment and Post Partum Dosing Program

The Ministry of Health and Population, through its hospitals and health facilities, has been providing treatment on VAD related diseases such as acute eye infection, measles, prolonged diarrhea, malnutrition, etc with high dose vitamin A capsule as per the treatment protocol. NTAG has provided orientation to the district health office staff, PHC/HF Staff, health institutions, both public and private, on the case treatment with vitamin A and post partum dosing. This has helped to train newly recruited staff and at the same time it has served the purpose of providing refresher orientation to the existing HF staff. This session has also been used where possible to orient them about the treatment of night bind pregnant women with low dose VAC.

Case Treatment Protocol Low Dose Program (CTP-LD Program)

Maternal vitamin A deficiency is a major public health problem in Nepal. More so, is the wider prevalence of nightblindness in pregnant women. In the 1998 Nepal Micronutrient Status Survey (NMSS), 17% of the women interviewed reported having suffered from nightblindness during their last pregnancy and 17% of women were found sub-clinically deficient in vitamin A. To address the problem, a policy was passed to treat nightblind pregnant women with a 25,000 IU vitamin A capsule weekly for 4 weeks at any time from the second trimester of pregnancy.

Deworming Program

The integration of deworming to children 2-5 with NVAP supplementation activity years was initiated in October 1999. A new policy has been formulated by MoHP to provide half of the de-worming tablet to children aged 1-2 years starting from October 2004 round. As of now the de-worming program has been implemented in all 75 districts.

Intensification of Maternal and Neonatal Micronutrient Program (IMNNP)

In 2004, MI provided technical and financial support to the Department of Health Services to develop and implement the Phase 1 of the Intensification of Maternal and Neonatal Micronutrient Program (IMNNP) to address micronutrient deficiencies among pregnant and postpartum women in five priority districts. The evaluation of this program has revealed positive results in terms of increased coverage and compliance of iron/ folate tablets among pregnant and postpartum women. In view of this encouraging result, MI has planned to provide technical and financial support in expanding the program in 36 more districts over 3 years in a phase-wise manner. Each phase will be of one year and will cover 12 districts. Accordingly, there will be three phases- Phase II, Phase III and Phase IV.

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