Over 500 children with suspected and confirmed cases of measles have died in Bangladesh since March, according to the country’s health ministry
Al Amin, who lives with his family in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, says his daughter had all her vaccines, apart from measles. On 8 March Al Amin took Akira to hospital, suffering with what he thought was a normal fever. She improved, went home, and then started developing a rash, a high fever and sores in her mouth. She was discharged and readmitted to hospital a total of five times, Al Amin says; only on the fifth occasion did a doctor tell him she was suffering from measles. Akira was put on life support. She died 27 days after she was first admitted. Over 500 children with suspected and confirmed cases of measles have died in Bangladesh since March, according to the country’s health ministry.
The health minister said last week that doctors and nurses treating those with the virus have had their Eid holiday leave cancelled and the government has been running a mass vaccination campaign to slow the spread and save lives. Akira’s parents tried on four occasions to get her vaccinated against measles, but were unable.
Al Amin says he and his wife still torture themselves, thinking that their daughter may have picked up the virus in the hospital. Al Amin says he and his wife still torture themselves, thinking that their daughter may have picked up the virus in the hospital. “From the ticket counter line to the x-ray room, there was a measles patient everywhere,” he says.
He is angry; that his child couldn’t get a vaccine, that her symptoms were missed, that he feels the hospitals failed to keep patients with measles apart from others.
In just over two months, the number of suspected cases of measles have reached over 60,000 in Bangladesh, according to the health ministry. The exact number has not been confirmed, as many are waiting for results from the laboratory.
Highly contagious, measles spreads quickly through coughs and sneezes and is particularly dangerous for unvaccinated young children under the age of 5.
