Epidemic: Two more die of measles

LAHORE: Two more children died of measles here on Saturday, taking the death toll from the disease to 103 in the province in the last five months. One child died at Mayo Hospital and the other at Children’s Hospital.

Some 213 new cases of measles were reported from the Punjab over the last 24 hours, including 43 from hospitals in Lahore, taking the total number of cases to 13,975 in the last five months in the province. Several have died of measles over the last week despite the government’s vaccination campaign at the start of this month that aimed to inoculate three million children in Lahore against the disease.

Another campaign targeting over 11 million children in 11 other districts starts next month.  Health Department officials say that most of the deaths were from severe pneumonia and they could have been prevented if the infected children had been taken to hospital sooner. Most of the deaths have been of children who lived in Lahore, Gujranwala, Rajanpur, Rahim Yar Khan, Kasur or Sialkot districts.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 26^th, 2013.