The Clutches of Measles: Number of Infected People Crosses One Lakh
Graphics: Agamir Somoy
Just a month ago, the government announced that over 4 lakh more children than the targeted number had been vaccinated against measles. Yet, in the last 24 hours, more than a thousand people have been infected with measles in the country, and 5 people have died.
Since March 15, the number of measles infections has crossed one lakh, marking the highest surge in two decades. The death toll from measles has now reached 666.
Public health expert Mushtaq Hussain believes this high number of infections is due to a failure to meet vaccination targets. "Herd immunity is achieved only when the vaccination coverage in an area reaches 95 percent. Only then do measles infections drop. If the vaccination targets had been met, more than a thousand people would not be getting infected with measles daily. This situation is not normal. A measles emergency is still ongoing."
"The daily death toll from measles has decreased compared to before. However, even a single daily death from a preventable disease is abnormal," the expert added.
Following the measles outbreak in the country, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) started maintaining a new count of measles cases from March 15. According to their regular bulletin data, the number of people infected with measles and showing its symptoms stands at 1,00,677. Among them, measles has been confirmed in 10,773 individuals so far. Furthermore, 89,904 others have shown symptoms of the disease.
According to DGHS data, the number of individuals infected with measles and its symptoms in the last 24 hours is 1,148. Among them, 139 are confirmed cases.
Reports of measles patients began surfacing in the country since the beginning of this year. By the end of February, it spread across the nation, and the country has been going through a measles emergency since March.
In the last 24 hours, five people died with measles symptoms, two of whom were from Sylhet. However, confirmed deaths stood at zero. For the past few days, the number of confirmed deaths has remained at zero.
Speaking at an event three days ago, the Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Sardar Md. Sakhawat Hossain, said, "In the past week, confirmed deaths from measles have dropped to zero. The number of suspected patient deaths has also fallen below five in the last 5 days. If we hadn't succeeded in the vaccination campaign, the situation would have been much worse. The health department has been 100 percent effective and successful in administering the measles vaccine in the country."
Health Minister's Claim Disagreed By Former IEDCR Scientist
The Health Minister's claim is not agreed upon by Dr. Mushtuq Hussain, former Chief Scientific Officer of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR). In his opinion, having zero confirmed deaths is not an achievement; it is an unscientific statement. Measles shows symptoms of measles. When a disease takes an epidemic form, it is not essential nor necessary to test every patient individually to confirm the diagnosis.
Instead of expressing satisfaction over a 100% vaccine success rate, the government should rather identify areas where vaccination could not be administered and implement microplanning to reach those children, Dr. Mushtuq Hussain commented.
Following the measles outbreak, the government began vaccination in the high-risk upazilas of 18 districts on April 5. Subsequently, a nationwide vaccination campaign commenced on April 20 and concluded on May 20. The government's target was to bring 1,80,15,064 (1 crore 80 lakh 15 thousand 64) children under measles vaccination coverage.
As of last Sunday, 1,82,23,445 (1 crore 82 lakh 23 thousand 445) children had been vaccinated, meaning that more children than the target received the vaccine.
Under normal circumstances, the first dose of the vaccine was administered at nine months. To curb the measles outbreak, the newly determined vaccination age was set from six months to five years. However, children up to six years of age were also vaccinated.
