Dhaka, April 1 As the measles outbreak triggers public health concerns across Bangladesh, as many as four children have died from suspected cases and related complications in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 44 this year, local media reported on Wednesday.
According to Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) spokesman Shankar K. Biswas, two children died of suspected measles in the last 24 hours, raising the hospital’s tally of fatalities from the highly contagious infection to three.
He added that 98 suspected measles patients are admitted to the hospital as of Tuesday.
Superintendent Tanzina Jahan at the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH) in Dhaka’s Mohakhali said that another child died within the same 24-hour period, bringing the death toll from suspected measles cases at the medical facility to 25, Bangladesh’s leading newspaper, The Daily Star, reported.
Reports suggest that since January, a total of 617 suspected measles patients have been receiving treatment at the hospital.
Separately, another five-and-a-half-month-old infant with measles symptoms died while undergoing treatment at Chattogram Medical College Hospital (CMCH) on Tuesday.
According to a report in Bangladesh’s Bengali daily Prothom Alo, the procurement of all types of vaccines was delayed due to some decisions taken during the previous Muhammad Yunus-led interim government.
Experts stressed that gaps in vaccination coverage are the main cause of the outbreak, with many children remaining outside the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) or failing to complete the full dosage, leaving them vulnerable.
Meanwhile, although the EPI has received the measles-rubella vaccine, officials said that the syringes are yet to arrive, reportedly delaying the start of the nationwide campaign by around one and a half to two months.
Rather than prioritising routine vaccination for children, Bangladesh’s Ministry of Health, the Directorate General of Health Services, the Office of the Auditor General and Comptroller, the Cabinet Division, and donor agencies have spent time deliberating over the vaccine procurement process, whether to procure directly or seek UNICEF assistance, as well as evaluating the financial gains and losses.
This has resulted in the depletion of the vaccine stock and the national campaign being postponed, with public health experts calling it negligence in purchasing the vaccine, Prothom Alo reported.
Experts have urged the government to take urgent action, warning that failure to act could lead to a widespread measles outbreak, as one patient can infect 16 to 18 people.
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