Dhaka, June 15 (IANS). The outbreak of measles is continuously increasing in Bangladesh. Four more children died due to measles and measles-like symptoms in the last 24 hours till 8 am (local time) on Monday, taking the total number of deaths due to the disease in the country to 656.
According to local media reports, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) has declared one of these four deaths as a laboratory-confirmed case of measles, while three deaths have been classified as suspected. With this, the number of laboratory-confirmed measles deaths in the country has reached 93 and the number of suspected deaths has reached 563.
972 new suspected measles cases have also been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of suspected patients in the country to 86,923. 64 new lab-confirmed cases were recorded in the same period, taking the total number of confirmed infections to 10,387.
According to DGHS, since March 15, 71,467 suspected patients have been admitted to hospitals, out of which 67,878 patients have recovered and returned home.
Meanwhile, in Bangladesh, despite the government claiming that vaccination coverage among targeted children has crossed 100 percent, the measles outbreak in the country does not seem to be subsiding. Due to this, vaccination experts have expressed concern about the effectiveness of the vaccine and the shortcomings in vaccination coverage.
More than a month has passed since the nationwide emergency vaccination drive ended, yet more than 1,000 children are being admitted to hospitals across the country every day with measles or measles-like symptoms and the death toll continues to rise.
Be-Nazir Ahmed, former director of the government’s disease control department, said that if vaccination coverage had indeed exceeded 90 percent, infection cases should have declined much faster. He said that many times vaccination is shown to be 100 percent on paper, while in reality thousands of children are still deprived of vaccination.
Earlier last month, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had also revealed that it had warned the then interim government led by Muhammad Yunus about the vaccine shortage through written letters and meetings with the Health Ministry several times.
UNICEF representative in Bangladesh, Rana Flowers, had told in a press conference held in Dhaka that from the year 2024, the government was being warned that the lack of vaccine could cause a major health crisis in the future. He said that between 2024 and 2026, UNICEF sent several letters and raised the issue in 10 different meetings, but necessary steps were not taken to procure the vaccine on time.
According to Rana, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Ted Chabon had also expressed serious concerns about the vaccine shortage in a meeting with the Ministry of External Affairs during his visit to Bangladesh in August last year.
–IANS
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