Dhaka, July 23 (IANS). Measles outbreak continues in Bangladesh. Two more children with disease-like symptoms died on Thursday. With this the total number of deaths has increased to 805.
According to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), these two deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours till Thursday morning. According to Bangladeshi news agency ‘UNB’, both these deaths are currently considered to be caused by suspected measles.
According to the report, the number of confirmed deaths due to measles still stands at 95, but the number of suspected deaths has increased to 710.
DGHS reported 848 new suspected cases of measles in the last 24 hours. With this, the total number of suspected cases since March 15 has reached 1,21,200.
There were also 166 new confirmed cases of measles during the same period, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 15,007.
Amidst the growing health crisis, a report has said that on an average about four children are dying every day due to measles and more than 800 people have to be hospitalized every day. At the same time, both the efforts of the government and the attention of the people seem to be less than before.
The government says that it has achieved the target of emergency measles vaccination campaign, but a large number of patients are still arriving in hospitals without getting vaccinated. It is clear from this that the scope of vaccination is still not sufficient.
The situation remained serious even in the first three weeks of July. According to DGHS data, an average of 1,005 suspected and confirmed cases were reported every day during this period, 821 people had to be hospitalized and about four people died.
According to Bangladesh’s leading newspaper The Daily Star, Mahmudur Rahman, chairman of the National Verification Committee formed to eliminate measles and rubella, said, “There has been some improvement in the situation, but two months after the vaccination campaign started, it has not improved as much as it should have. It seems that the authorities are not able to fully understand this.”
Health experts say the outbreak has persisted because about 4 million children have missed vaccinations. Apart from this, the infection spread even among children older than the prescribed age limit of the campaign and the measures to prevent the infection were also not sufficient.
Rehman said the gap of 40 lakh children between the measles-rubella vaccination campaign and the Vitamin A campaign is an indication that a large number of children are still unvaccinated and at risk of infection.
–IANS
AY/DKP
