Measles: Children who missed vaccination are being searched and given vaccine

Health authorities are searching for children who have not yet received the measles vaccine. The initiative aims to bring all children under vaccination coverage.

The drive will continue until 20 May. However, according to relevant sources, authorities are facing difficulties bringing street children and children from floating families in major cities under the vaccination programme.

Health officials from two upazilas said that the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) had instructed all civil surgeons, upazila health and family planning officers, municipal medical officers, and chief health officers of city corporations to identify children left out of vaccination and bring them under coverage.

The EPI directive issued on 7 May stated that officials must conduct Rapid Convenience Monitoring (RCM) by visiting at least 20 households to identify unvaccinated children.

Authorities must then arrange for them to receive vaccines at the nearest vaccination centre.

A Health and Family Planning Officer from an upazila in the southern region told Prothom Alo that authorities estimate around 2 to 3 per cent of children in the upazila have still not received the ongoing measles campaign vaccine.

Since Monday, health workers have started going door to door to identify children who missed vaccination.

A medical officer of the World Health Organization (WHO), who works in the Sadar area of another district in the southern region, told Prothom Alo that he had visited 20 households and identified three children who had missed vaccination.

Generally, major cities have a higher number of unvaccinated children. Locating these children has also proved difficult.

Brigadier General Imrul Kayes Chowdhury, chief health officer of the Dhaka North City Corporation said, “Volunteers from the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society and staff members of the Institute for Developing Science and Health Initiatives (ideSHi) are assisting in identifying children who missed vaccination.”

Imrul Kayes added, “We have deployed two ambulances to vaccinate floating children. These ambulances are visiting bridges, areas surrounding the National Zoo, in front of the zoo, beneath Metro Rail station staircases, and other possible locations where children from floating families may be found.”

Yesterday, Monday, the Integrated Control Centre of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) reported that authorities had set a target of vaccinating 18,016,914 children against measles across the country’s eight divisions.

From the start of the vaccination campaign on 5 April until yesterday, Monday, 17,999,976 children received the vaccine. This means 16,938 children remain unvaccinated.

Six more children died with measles symptoms within 24 hours — from 8:00 am on Sunday to 8:00 am yesterday, Monday.

Among the deceased children, three were from Dhaka, two from Chattogram, and one from Mymensingh.

During the same period, the DGHS recorded measles symptoms in another 1,341 children nationwide.

Since 15 March, authorities have recorded the deaths of 350 children with measles symptoms across the country.

Following confirmed measles diagnoses, 65 more children died. Altogether, the total death toll has now reached 415 children.