Measles: 20-bed field ward for children awaiting launch at DMCH

A 20-bed field ward for children infected with measles is awaiting launch at Dhaka Medical College Hospital. The Bangladesh Army is assisting in setting up the ward.

A visit to Dhaka Medical College Hospital this morning, Wednesday, showed that the field ward had been set up in tents beside the Shaheed Dr Milon Auditorium. Four Ansar personnel were on duty there.

Speaking to Prothom Alo about the 20-bed field ward for measles patients, the hospital’s director, Brigadier General Md Asaduzzaman, said, “We have established a 20-bed field hospital here for measles patients. But we are not admitting patients there yet. We have not received instructions from our directorate. Once we receive the order, we will start operations.”

The director said that although permission to admit patients has not yet been granted, physicians, nurses, and medicines are ready.

Asked what is being done for children with measles arriving at Dhaka Medical from different areas, Md Asaduzzaman said, “Those measles patients who can be treated at home are being sent back home. Among the children who require admission, those under one year old are being sent to the children’s hospital. Those older than one year are being referred to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital or the DNCC dedicated COVID-19 hospital.”

However, he added that if children admitted for illnesses other than measles become infected with measles during treatment, they are treated in separate cabins.

“If a child receiving treatment in the surgery department here contracts measles, it is not possible to send that child to another hospital, because follow-up care is needed here. That is why four separate cabins have been reserved for children who contract measles while under treatment, and they are treated there,” he added.

The director also mentioned that Dhaka Medical does not have a dedicated isolation ward for children.

A visit to wards 210 and 211 of the hospital’s pediatric unit showed many children undergoing treatment. As beds were unavailable, many children were being treated on makeshift beds placed on the floor.

One mother, Suravi Akter, was sitting on a mattress on the floor with her child. She said she had brought her one-and-a-half-year-old son, Abir, from Narayanganj two days earlier. Abir had been suffering from fever for many days, and local physicians advised taking him to Dhaka Medical. After arriving, they could not get a hospital bed and were given a mattress on the floor instead. Physicians have diagnosed Abir with pneumonia, she said.