25 children have died in three weeks in Sukkur’s Salehpat taluka alone.
In Salehpat, 20 kilometres away from Sukkur, a woman has already lost two of her sons to the viral disease. Siyani’s other three children, two daughters and a son, are also suffering from measles.
When six-year-old Kashmir and three-year-old Shahmir fell ill, she took them to the taluka’s basic health unit, where doctors gave them two tablets. Then she took her sons to Civil Hospital, Sukkur, but they died overnight, Siyani told reporters.
Many more families are complaining about the apathy of doctors and lack of medical facilities.
On a visit to Salehpat two days ago, Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah, the federal religious affairs minister, was extremely dissatisfied with the efforts of health department. On his notice, the health authorities woke up from their slumber and dispatched medical teams to the affected areas.
Clarifying his position, Sukkur Health EDO Dr Jay Ram Das instead blamed the people for adhering to centuries-old customs. “In rural areas, people mostly live in single-room houses and are not able to quarantine their ailing children,” he said. Measles is a very contagious (easily spread) illness and infection is spread through sneezing and coughing of an infected person.
“This is not all,” he said, “People irrespective of their religion don’t want to offend Mata Rani, who, according to Hindu mythology, takes over the body of a child [during measles] for five to seven days.” Most of the children have died due to post-measles complications.
Many ailing children have been to the basic health unit while more than 25 teams of the health department are visiting different areas to vaccinate children. “We are trying to convince the people to bring their children for proper treatment,” said Das.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 27th, 2012.
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