Bangladesh confirms 94 children died in 19 days due to measles

DHAKA: (Apr 6) Bangladesh on Sunday said a severe measles outbreak has claimed lives of at least 94 children in the past 19 days, prompting the government to launch an emergency remedial campaign for the infectious disease.

As the outbreak affected 56 out of the 64 administrative districts, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s government blamed the Interim government of Muhammad Yunus for its failure to provide vaccines on time for measles.

Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said 10 of the total 94 measles related deaths occurred in 24 hours ending at 8 am Sunday even as the number of suspected measles cases detected grew to 5,792 during the 19 days, 974 of them since Saturday.