Bangladesh aims to vaccinate 1.1 million children on first day of emergency measles drive

Four more children with measles and measles-like symptoms have died in the past 24 hours. One of the cases was confirmed to be of the highly-contagious disease.

A total of 36 measles deaths have been reported across the country since Mar 15, according to the regular bulletin from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on Sunday. Another 181 have died with symptoms consistent with the disease.

The Dhaka Division has seen the most deaths so far, with 83. The Rajshahi Division is second with 66.

The DGHS says another 165 cases of measles have been confirmed in the past 24 hours, with another 1,197 patients coming to hospitals with symptoms consistent with the disease. Of the latter group, 804 have been admitted to hospitals.

Dhaka hospitals have seen the most admissions in the past day with 361. Mymensingh has seen the least with 11.

A total of 23,606 suspected cases of measles have been reported since Mar 15. Of them, 3,443 have been confirmed.

The measles rubella vaccination campaign on Apr 5 and Apr 12 has also administered a total of 1,487,192 vaccines in six divisions across the country. In addition, 466,691 vaccines have been administered in Dhaka’s two city corporations, and in the Barishal and Mymensingh city corporations.