81% of children vaccinated against measles: Health minister
At least 81% of children have received measles vaccine in Bangladesh, Health Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Husain said today.
“The remaining children will brought under vaccination very soon,” the minister said at a press briefing at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in Dhaka after the second session of the Deputy Commissioners’ Conference.
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Measles is currently under control in the country and the death rate has declined significantly, he said.
There is an adequate supply of vaccines and distribution across the country is running smoothly, he said.
A nationwide emergency measles-rubella vaccination campaign was launched on April 20 to vaccinate around 1.8 crore children aged 6 months to under 5 years across the country.
Besides, on April 5, the government, with support from Unicef, WHO and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, launched an emergency measles-rubella vaccination campaign to protect more than 1.2 million children aged 6 months to 5 years in 30 upazilas in 18 high-risk districts.
Confirmed measles deaths rose to 50 today after one additional fatality was reported in the 24 hours leading up to 8:00am, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Meanwhile, nine more suspected deaths from measles were recorded during the same period, taking the total number of suspected deaths to 244.
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