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Most children currently infected with measles in Bangladesh have not received the measles vaccine, Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Hossain said on Sunday.
He made the statement at a press conference at the Health Ministry’s meeting room at Bangladesh Secretariat in the afternoon, organised to announce a special measles vaccination campaign.
The minister said the government will launch the Intensified MR Catch-up Vaccination programme on September 26 to bring children who were missed during the ongoing measles-rubella vaccination campaign under immunisation.
The programme will continue until October 31 and cover children aged six months to below five years who have not received the vaccine or were missed during the ongoing campaign. Newly eligible children who reach six months of age during the campaign will also be included.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister for Health Dr SM Ziauddin Haider, Health Services Division Secretary Dr ANM Bazlur Rashid and Directorate General of Health Services Director General Dr Prabhat Chandra Biswas were present at the press conference.
Sakhawat said children currently suffering from measles were developing serious complications, including pneumonia, due to malnutrition and other health problems.
He said it generally takes three to four weeks for antibodies to develop in the body after vaccination.
Regarding the dengue and measles situation, the minister said the government had made all necessary preparations to provide treatment for patients of both diseases and there was no shortage of saline. Mobile hospitals and the armed forces had also been kept ready to provide emergency services to dengue patients, he said.
The minister said most dengue patients could be treated at the upazila level, but many patients were going directly to tertiary-level hospitals, putting additional pressure on those facilities.
Meanwhile, around 4.3 million doses of measles-rubella (MR) vaccine arrived in Bangladesh on September 10 under a special arrangement by the government with support from UNICEF for implementation of the special vaccination programme.
The country currently has a stock of around 5.8 million doses of the vaccine.