Kathmandu, April 26 -- Hundreds of thousands of pregnant women, new mothers, and girls between 10 and 19 have been deprived of iron and folic acid for months, as state-run health facilities across the country have run out of the vital supplements.

The free iron and folic acid supplementation programme, which was initiated to reduce the high prevalence of anaemia among adolescent girls, pregnant women, and new mothers, has stalled.

"Yes, many health facilities from across the country are out of iron and folic acid," said Lila Bikram Thapa, chief of the Nutrition Section at the Family Welfare Division under the Department of Health Services. "We have requested local units to use their funds to continue the distribution of supplementation ...