‘Measles has claimed 27 lives in Sindh this year’

As many as 27 children have died in Sindh in the first 10 weeks of the ongoing year as the province’s health authorities scramble to deal with a measles outbreak and a setback after four children died due to health officials’ negligence.

Some 1,500 suspected measles cases have been reported in Sindh so far this year, including 200 reported from six districts of Karachi. Of these, 27 children have died from complications of the viral, infectious disease in the province, Dr Agha Ashfaq, the program manager of Sindh Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI), told The News on Saturday.

“A few children may also have died in Karachi due to the viral infection but their details are not available at the moment,” he said.

According to him, 152 cases had been confirmed from 23 districts of Sindh, while around 20 had been confirmed from six districts of Karachi.

He added that the deaths caused by measles are usually because of complications of the illness, which include a compromised immune system in weak children.

Measles is a highly-infectious disease which can be prevented by timely vaccination of children. According to the World Health Organization, around 2.6 million children die across the world annually from the disease because they are not vaccinated against it.

While grappling with an outbreak, the Sindh EPI has also been facing immense difficulties in convincing parents to get their children vaccinated against measles after four children died in Nawabshah and several other fell ill earlier this month due to negligence of some health workers who failed to maintain the cold chain and used contaminated syringes to administer the vaccine.

Vaccinators are also having trouble convincing parents to get kids vaccinated against polio and other vaccine-preventable diseases in the aftermath of the four deaths.

‘Consult a doctor’

Ashfaq advised parents to immediately take their child to any tertiary-care hospital or a qualified doctor if they suspect that the child has contracted measles. The symptoms to look out for include, fever, a runny nose, cough, swollen eyelids and eye inflammation in addition to skin rashes.

“Measles does not kill a child but following the viral infection, the child is infected with other viral and bacterial infections, especially pneumonia, which often results in death if not properly treated at a well-equipped hospital,” the Sindh EPI chief said.

He said Sindh and Punjab are both in the grip of a measles outbreak, but claimed that the situation in Sindh was “far better than Punjab” due to a better vaccination strategy by the officials in the EPI and health department.