KARACHI: Despite government efforts to improve immunisation status of children, an alarming situation over measles persists with at least 28 deaths reported in the first three months of this year at two tertiary-care hospitals in the city alone, it emerged on Friday.

Speaking to Dawn, senior paediatricians associated with different health facilities said that while there were periodic surges in measles’ cases throughout the year, especially with the onset of winters, the situation had worsened over the last four weeks.

“There are two deaths within 12 hours on Friday [March 28]. At least two to three children are losing life every week at the hospital for a month or so,” said an official at the government-run Sindh Infectious Diseases Hospital & Research Centre on the condition of anonymity.

He also shared that affected children experiencing complications of pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome also included infants under the age of six months and even those children who had apparently been vaccinated against measles — a highly contagious but vaccine-preventable viral infection.

SIDH reports 25, Indus Hospital witnesses three deaths from highly contagious disease since January; health department declares 1,000 confirmed cases across province

“When a disease spreads in the community, it can affect even vaccinated vulnerable individuals,” he explained, adding that the hospital had seen 25 deaths in three months with over 270 admissions.

Last year, the hospital recorded 34 and 31 deaths from measles and diphtheria, respectively.

Sources attributed the situation mainly to parental negligence in ensuring timely primary vaccination of their children and low immunity levels, especially in infants.

They linked the second factor directly to the lack of breastfeeding practices as, they pointed out, children who failed to get mother’s milk were more vulnerable to infections and illnesses.

“No child should die of measles or chickenpox. The tragic situation in our society is purely the consequence of parental ignorance, food taboos and negligence,” remarked Dr Muhammad Fareeduddin, heading the paediatrics department at the Indus Hospital.

He regretted that young mothers were so much influenced by promotional campaigns of infant formula products that they did not breastfeed their children.

“Besides, there are a lot of negative traditional practices and food taboos, causing harm. We believe that there is an immediate need for an effective media campaign to change the societal mindset positively and encourage mothers to breastfeed their children and feed them home-made food.”

According to him, a child is effectively protected against measles if he has received at least two doses of its vaccine.

Sources at the Indus Hospital shared that the facility had seen three deaths from measles with over 500 cases reported at its emergency department in three months.

Health dept confirms 17 deaths, 1,000 cases and 22 outbreaks

The health department has, however, declared 17 deaths this year so far with 22 outbreaks and over 1,000 confirmed cases across the province.

According to the official data, Karachi has seen five outbreaks, two each in district East and Malir and one in Keamari. Five deaths are reported from district East.

Measles’ outbreaks have also been reported from Dadu, Jacobabad, Kambar, Khairpur, Sukkur, Tharparkar and Umerkot.

Last year at least 150 children reportedly died of measles in the province with more than 13,000 suspected and 6,670 confirmed cases.

The year 2024 saw 149 outbreaks across the province with 18 outbreaks reported in Karachi alone.

High number of cases

According to senior paediatrician Dr Ved Vaswani, currently associated with Burhani Hospital and Al-Mustafa Medical Centre, there has been a persistent wave of measles for more than a year or so.

“I haven’t seen so many measles cases in my 30 years’ of practice. There is a brief respite and then again the cases start going up. The majority of the affected children are unvaccinated or with partial protection. One major reason for the disease spread is crowded and unhygienic living conditions and lack of contact precautions,” he explained.

He underscored the need for early diagnosis and said that often doctors missed critical disease signs, increasing a child’s vulnerability to complications.

“Doctors should know about the importance of Vitamin A supplement that plays an important role in prevention and minimises chances for complications in measles.”

‘Immunisation gaps’

Responding to the concerns over the measles’ situation, Dr Raj Kumar, the newly appointed Programme Director of EPI, linked the high number of cases to the immunisation gaps experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The government, he said, has taken several steps to ensure maximum immunization coverage. “A major initiative is the big catch-up drive, under which over 80,000 zero-dose children have been immunised while over 170,000 children have completed their full immunisation schedule as part of the campaign.”

He urged parents to benefit from the govt initiatives and protect lives of their children

About the disparity between the health department data and the figures reported by city’s two hospitals, he said he would verify the data being received from health facilities in Karachi.

Published in Dawn, March 31st, 2025