Outbreak: Another toddler falls prey to measles

The disease has taken seven lives in Swat over the past four months.

SWAT:

A child died on Wednesday after contracting measles in Kalam’s Gul Abad village in Upper Swat.

Three-year-old child, Saima, was the second child who died because of the recent outbreak of measles in which over 100 children were affected, according to official sources. The disease also claimed the lives of five more children in Kalam and Matiltan areas four months back.

The death occurred at a time when the District Health Department said it was sending fresh teams to inoculate children in the area. Locals, however, claim that only the areas where deaths occurred are being covered and the rest are being left out.

According to the Health EDO, the Expanded Programme for Immunisation (EPI) has been started in upper Swat, where more than 300 children were recently inoculated.

“The increase in measles and other viral disease cases in the area were caused by treatment from unqualified medical practitioners. Parents also don’t pay heed to their children’s initial treatment and when their condition worsens, they go to quacks instead of qualified doctors, and substandard treatment by the quacks leaves children in critical condition,” said an official at Kalam Tehsil Hospital (KTH).

On the other hand, locals say that there are no facilities at the KTH, so people are compelled to look elsewhere for treatment.

They demanded that the government take steps to facilitate the area’s only hospital by installing all necessary health facilities and hiring doctors with the required qualifications.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 22^nd, 2012.