Pakistan records 103 child measles deaths in 19 days: WHO
The World Health Organisation calls it an alarming outbreak
Karachi: More than 100 children have died of measles in Pakistan this month, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday, calling it “an alarming outbreak".
“Some 103 Pakistani children have died from 1-19 January this year because of the post-measles complications such as pneumonia, post-measles encephalitis and diarrhoea," WHO spokeswoman Maryam Yunus told AFP.
Sixty-three of the cases occurred in the southern province of Sindh, which was hit by severe flooding in 2010, 2011 and 2012.
The UN body said 33 children died in southwestern Baluchistan province, which is plagued by separatist insurgency and sectarian strife. The most populous Punjab province reported seven children’s deaths. Half of a total of 2,447 cases were reported from Sindh province, of which Karachi is capital.
She said WHO and UNICEF have provided a combined 4.4 million doses of measles vaccines since last year to children in Sindh’s flood affected areas.
A senior health ministry official confirmed the WHO figures. “We can’t dispute the figures. Our teams have similar reports," he said.
A WHO spokeswoman said that a key factor behind more deaths in Sindh was malnourishment, particularly in the flood-affected districts.
The ministry official said the number of deaths in January were already “a record high". Children under nine months are not eligible for the vaccine.
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