Measles shows no sign of coming under control in Chattogram. More than 9,000 people have been infected since mid-March as the outbreak spread from the city to the upazilas, according to the divisional health department; 8,878 have recovered and 29 have died, 21 of them children. Doctors say a shortage of test kits means most patients admitted with symptoms are never tested.
Divisional health director Sekh Fazle Rabbi said on Saturday that the situation is unchanged, many people are still being admitted with symptoms, and health officials are worried. Professor Dr Mohammad Musa, head of paediatrics at Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH), said 296 children are being treated in the measles block, 15 of them in intensive care. Six people aged 14 to 24 have also been admitted with symptoms, and a 25-year-old intern doctor caught measles while treating patients.
CMCH has 50 beds in its dedicated measles unit, 10 in the paediatric surgery ward and 16 in isolation, and every area holds more than twice its capacity. Children are being treated two to a bed, and many families are on the floor. Farzana Akter from Halishahar said her child has been on the hospital floor for 28 days. With beds short, some measles patients are kept in general wards, raising the risk of spread to other children.
Hospital director Brigadier General Mohammad Taslim Uddin said patients with symptoms are treated separately, but the rising load needs extra emergency preparation, and shortages of beds and space are making it hard to stop infection spreading within the hospital grounds.
Khadija Ahmed, the World Health Organization's surveillance and immunisation medical officer for the Chattogram City Corporation area, said nine city wards are hotspots: Jalalabad, Chandgaon, North Pahartali, Lalkhan Bazar, East Bakalia, Alkaran, South Middle Halishahar, South Halishahar and North Patenga. Upazilas including Satkania, Anwara, Banshkhali, Patiya, Hathazari, Raozan, Rangunia and Sitakunda, along with Cox's Bazar, Kutubdia, Maheshkhali and Chandpur, are also hotspots. Under WHO guidelines, she said, Bangladesh is now in a measles outbreak.
This report is based on reporting by Dhaka Mail's Chattogram correspondent.
Photo: Press Information Department / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Source: Dhaka Mail
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