Measles takes lives of 157 children

727 confirmed cases of measles this year alone, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh are the worst hit.

KARACHI/ISLAMABAD:

It’s not just polio. Pakistan is suffering from another outbreak of measles that has taken the lives of 157 children so far. The intensity of the spread of measles has significantly increased, with 727 confirmed cases this year alone. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh are the worst hit.

In Sindh, there were cases of measles and ensuing child deaths for the second consecutive year. Health experts say that measles kill children in the province mainly due to malnutrition.

In February and March this year, Sindh launched a measles vaccination drive aiming to inoculate 3.9 million children between the ages of nine months and 1o years. “We have achieved our target, up to 103% as the population has increased after the last census in 1998,” said the provincial head of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) programme, Dr Mazhar Khamisani. “The situation is under control now.”

Similar to the situation in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, several children fainted in different villages of Sajwal during the vaccination. But there were no deaths reported due to the vaccination.

However, many children have died of the disease itself. According to government officials, only 14 children have died of measles this year, but unofficial reports put the number to almost 100.



When inoculation campaigns are not being conducted, the only places to go are EPI centres and public sector hospitals. But a majority of these health facilities are far away from villages and so most of the poverty-stricken villagers avoid visiting hospitals only for vaccination. “It needs a whole day and expenditures for transportation and meals,” a villager Ayub said. “It would be better if teams visit us.”

Another villager near Sajawal, Parvez Ali, too, avoids visiting hospitals for vaccination only. “I know vaccination is important for a child and a mother but the system is unfavourable here,” he said, adding that one can’t get his children easily vaccinated without ‘contacts’. His three-month-old daughter, Madiha, died in February because of measles.

According to the provincial health department, a total of 13.9 million children were administered measles vaccine, which is free of charge. “There are many expectations from the measles supplemental immunisation activities (SIA), which have been recently completed in Sindh and K-P,” a federal EPI official told The Express Tribune.

This campaign was supposed to be carried out last year when it was recommended by international donor agencies. However, the lethargic attitude of the government that only concentrated on accumulating funds caused the delay, he added.

He explained that the success of the measles campaign will be clearly reflected through a significant decrease in the number of cases from K-P and Sindh starting from the month of July. “We are expecting at least a 95% decline in the number of measles cases from the two provinces after the drive.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 16^th, 2014.