Measles sweeps Sindh as 26 children hospitalised in Dadu

Of the children employed for wheat harvest from Balochistan, one died this week

HYDERABAD: The measles virus claimed two more lives on Friday while 26 children of a single tribe from Balochistan employed for the wheat harvest in Dadu district have been hospitalised. Official sources at Civil Hospital, Dadu said on Saturday that three of the 26 children are in critical condition.

The health authorities of Dadu were awakened to the situation on Friday after the Baloch peasants staged a protest following the death of one-year-old Salma, daughter of Mohammed Khan Brohi. Ahmed Khan Brohi and Ilyas Brohi told the local media that dozens of their children in their village of Duabo are displaying symptoms similar to those Salma displayed.

"We went to the local health authorities to request them to send a team to diagnose and treat our children but they didn't come until one of our children died," decried Ahmed Khan. Dadu-based child protection unit incharge Naheed Qazi, who visited the village after media reports of the child’s death, claimed that eight children have so far died this year in the district while the contagion is relentlessly spreading. "The need is to fix responsibility on the doctors who in the first place failed to immunise the children against polio and those in the second place who failed to provide the ill children timely medical treatment," she suggested.



A team of local doctors led by Dr Hameed Soomro and Allah Bux Korejo visited the village and shifted the 26 children to Civil Hospital, Dadu. The condition of three of the 26 children, Naz, Noor and Abdul Raheem, deteriorated on Friday and the doctors suggested referring them to Peoples Medical University Hospital in Nawabshah. A total of 33 children sick with measles are admitted at the hospital.

Meanwhile, another child Arhad Ali Shah, who was 18 months old, died in the Tando Adam town of Sanghar district. This is reportedly the third death in the town in a week.

Earlier in January, six children died within the span of a few days in Gorakh Town Colony in Johi taluka of Dadu district. The health authorities of Dadu had claimed that the officials or staff will face action if they were found negligent of duty in the inquiry. However, no action was taken despite the announcement.

Although measles-related deaths have been reported from all parts of Sindh, the virus has reportedly gripped the districts of upper Sindh more than those in the lower region of the province.



According to the World Health Organization's report, 5,871 cases were reported in Pakistan in 2016. The figure almost doubled in 2017 to 10,540 cases. Laboratory tests confirmed that 2,806 and 6,437 cases were reported respectively during the two years.

Health practitioners point to incomplete coverage in the immunisation campaigns and a lack of efficient treatment facilities in rural areas as the cause of the virus's spread. Three children died in Benazirabad district on March 3 and five were hospitalised after they were allegedly administered expired vials of anti-measles vaccinations.