Measles outbreak claims 5 more children as death toll reaches 666

Five more children have died of measles symptoms over the past 24 hours, while health authorities confirmed 1,009 new cases as of 8:00 am on Thursday. 

According to a regular bulletin issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), the latest fatalities bring the total death toll to 666 since the agency began tracking the outbreak on March 15. 

This figure includes 93 confirmed measles deaths and 573 deaths of patients with measles symptoms. 

The DGHS reported that a total of 74,184 people have been hospitalised with measles and its symptoms nationwide since March 15. Thus far, 70,503 patients have recovered and been discharged. 

Although the outbreak began earlier this year, public health experts are criticising the government’s delayed response and lack of standardised clinical guidelines. 

Experts note that a complete clinical management protocol for measles has yet to be officially published, leaving doctors from upazila-level facilities to private hospitals without coordinated treatment instructions. 

Furthermore, the absence of formal death reviews or clinical audits to analyse child mortalities has raised concerns that medical facilities are at risk of repeating the same mistakes.

Dr. Mushtaq Hossain, a public health expert, stressed that simply increasing the number of Intensive Care Units (ICUs) will not resolve the crisis without properly trained staff. 

"ICUs are not effective without skilled manpower. We need to make our existing ICUs child-friendly and make oxygen support easily available," Dr. Hossain said. 

He emphasised that the primary objective must be to prevent infected children from reaching the ICU stage in the first place by ensuring rapid identification, oxygen therapy, and isolation at the upazila level.