Media feed on measles is confusing, to say the least. The daily updates of confirmed death from the measles and its symptoms may be necessary for academic records but to families suffering the tragic loss of budding lives it is meaningless. Since mid-March until May 16, the highly contagious disease has claimed 451 children, 74 of them from laboratory-confirmed infections and the rest 377 from measles-like symptoms. Such categorisation hardly exposes the gravity of the child health emergency. Even the 56,500 suspected cases do not reflect the health crisis facing the country.
Although some facilities created during the Covid-19 have been refurbished to accommodate the rush of child patients, they prove to be inadequate for treating the patients seeking admission to hospitals and those health facilities. The question is, why has the government failed to call it a pandemic. Even the projection from health and virology experts is proving wrong. They predicted that by mid-May, the incidence of infection would start declining. Clearly, there is no sign that the measles cases will start falling anytime soon.
One very significant issue here is the death of the majority of children under six months old. Critically, children under six months old are not entitled to receive measles vaccine. Actually, the cutting point earlier was nine months before which children were not given the jab. If this is so, the question arises why should an outbreak of measles reach this proportion? One explanation is that breast-fed children should get the anti-body from their mothers and be immunised from this disease. Malnourished mothers cannot provide the required milk.
This factor leads to the point of origin of measles this time. The interim government's inexcusable negligence to procure measles vaccines during its tenure prepared the ground for the return of the disease. When did the stock of vaccine become empty? It is unlikely the stock diminished during the first few months. Most probably the stock finished early in 2025 or middle of that year. This shows that the system broke down gradually with the field-level workers and volunteers receiving no instruction from the higher authorities. A whole generation of children were thus deprived of measles and other vaccines along with vitamin-A. The interim government's lack of responsibility led to this situation. Reportedly, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) reminded the government of the crisis Bangladesh was going to face but it did not pay heed and tried to negotiate a different arrangement for procurement of vaccines.
The vaccine gap created thus invited measles to stage a comeback. The vaccine-deprived children may have fallen victim to the disease and once the genie is out of the bottle, there is no stopping it. Blaming the interim government would not bring the victims back to life nor will it stop the spread of the disease. The incumbent government has procured vaccines quite promptly but it could do even better by launching a campaign for vaccination to cover every deserving child.
As for the newborns particularly in poor and marginalised families with mothers suffering from malnourishment, the time is critical. If those babies do not get breast milk and vitamin-A capsules, their vulnerability to the disease will only increase. Such babies not yet eligible to receive measles vaccines may catch the disease with little chance of survival. There was a need for developing a prevention protocol for such young lives. Two separate teams could be formed comprising health and virology experts---one of which would explore the specific cause of the re-emergence of the disease and at which point this happened. The other would try to develop a prevention protocol, if possible.
In-depth research and studies of the disease are essential for finding out answers to all such questions. During the Covid-19 pandemic a management protocol was developed against the spread of that disease. A similar health and hygienic protocol is well in order. So the proposed expert teams should be assigned to develop a protocol and come up with an insight into management of other contagious diseases that may be waiting in the wing.
nilratanhalder2000@yahoo.com
