Five months on, Bangladesh’s deadly measles outbreak raises long-term health fears
DHAKA: Nearly five months into Bangladesh’s unprecedented measles outbreak, doctors warn of long-term consequences, as daily child deaths and the infection rate remain close to the levels at its outset, despite an ongoing emergency vaccination campaign.
Hundreds of children have been admitted to hospitals and clinics with measles symptoms every day since the Directorate General of Health Services began to publish daily outbreak figures on March 15.
At least 840 of them have since then died and 145,000 have been hospitalized.
“It is unprecedented in Bangladesh that so many children have died from a single disease,” Dr. Be-Nazir Ahmed, former director of the disease control branch at the Directorate General of Health Services, told Arab News.
