Dhaka, June 16 (IANS) In Bangladesh, measles or a disease with similar symptoms is claiming one child as its victim with every passing day. With one more death in the last 24 hours (till 8 pm Tuesday), the death toll has increased to 657.
The country’s Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said the latest death has been classified as a “suspected measles death”, and no child has succumbed to measles during this period.
Bangladesh’s news agency UNB, quoting new figures, said that the number of suspected measles deaths is 564, while the number of deaths after laboratory confirmation of measles is 93. No change has been recorded in this figure for the last few days.
At the same time, 1,006 new suspected cases were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total suspected cases to 87,929. At the same time, 136 were confirmed to be measles positive. In this way the total number of infected people reached 10,523.
According to DGHS, since March 15, 72,405 suspected category patients have been admitted to hospitals across the country, out of which 68,782 patients have recovered and returned home.
Health officials say that the situation is being continuously monitored and the increasing number of cases remains a matter of concern.
For the last 3-4 months, measles has wreaked havoc on the children of Bangladesh. Despite UNICEF’s warning, the previous interim government did not pay attention to this. Only last month, the organization’s representative in Bangladesh, Rana Flowers, had raised the issue of neglect. He said UNICEF had raised the issue through letters and meetings with the health ministry. The government had been warned since the year 2024 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.
At the same time, more than a month has passed since the end of the nationwide emergency vaccination campaign, but more than 1,000 children are still being admitted to hospitals every day with measles or measles-like symptoms and the number of deaths is continuously increasing.
–IANS
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