12 more children die of measles, symptoms in 24 hours

Twelve more children died of measles and measles-like symptoms in the past 24 hours until 8:0am on Thursday, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
With the latest daily tally, the total death toll from the highly contagious viral disease reached 336 since mid-March this year, the DGHS said in its latest bulletin.
Of the new fatalities, six were from Dhaka.
On the other hand, over 1,524 new suspected measles cases were recorded in the past hours.
The total suspected infections rose to 45,498 and confirmed cases reached 6,208 since mid-March, according to the DGHS bulletin.
As many as 31,912 patients were admitted to hospitals and 28,238 of them had returned home after recovery.
In the wake of a rapid outbreak of measles across the country, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has already launched an emergency measles-rubella vaccination campaign for children aged 6 months to 5 years, regardless of prior vaccination status, since the first week of April.
The WHO and partners are supporting the campaign to reach 18 million children, including over 180 000 children in Cox's Bazar.
Over 16 million children have already been vaccinated under the programme, said DGHS.
Bangladesh had made substantial progress towards measles elimination before the ongoing outbreak.
However, nationwide stock out of vaccine for 2024-2025 caused an increase in the number of susceptible children and contributed to the current outbreak, said WHO.
Measles usually affects individuals of all ages and remains one of the leading causes of death among young children globally.
Measles is usually a mild or moderately severe disease. However, measles can lead to complications such as pneumonia, diarrhea, secondary ear infection, inflammation of the brain (encephalitis), blindness, and death, according to health experts.
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