Vaccination camps to open at Tripura Para after deaths of children from measles

The government is setting up two temporary vaccination centres at Tripura Para of Sonaichharhi in Chittagong's Sitakunda after the deaths of nine unvaccinated children in the area from measles.

The vaccination centres will become operational on Wednesday, Chittagong Civil Surgeon Azizur Rahman Siddiqui told a media conference at the Bangladesh Institute of Tropical and Infectious Diseases in Fauzdarhat on Tuesday.

The temporary vaccination camp at central Sonaichharhi will be set up at Birendra Tripura's house and the other at Mogram Tripura's house at south Sonaichharhi.

The healthy children will be vaccinated at the camps from 7am to 9am on scheduled dates.

The children affected by malnutrition will not be vaccinated now because that will put their health at risk, the civil surgeon said.   

"We'll go there tomorrow. We want to launch the vaccination even if we find a single healthy child there.”.

A satellite clinic would also be set up in the area, he added.

A team of the government’s disease monitoring agency, IEDCR, rushed to the hilly village on July 11 following reports of deaths of the children from an unknown disease.

The Director General for Health Services Prof Abul Kalam Azad on Monday said the team investigated every case and carried out an anthropological study of the village.

As many as 388 people live in that area and 87 of them were taken to the hospitals after the deaths of nine.

According to the government study, the first measles case appeared on June 22 in that area and the first death was reported on July 8.

Eight more deaths were reported later as dozens of children were hospitalised with similar symptoms.

The IEDCR first said the children were severely malnourished 'because of their socio-economic condition'

Its primary assumption was that they contracted the disease 'because of the vulnerability caused by long-time malnutrition'.

The government on Monday identified measles as the cause of the children’s deaths, a revelation that put the whole health sector into question as those children in a small tribe were never vaccinated.

The DGHS said “sorry” on behalf of the health officials who for decades could not reach that small tribal group consisting of 85 families living in the remote village.

Chittagong Civil Surgeon Siddiqui on Tuesday said there are nine Tripura Paras in Sitakunda. Seven of those had allowed vaccination of their children but the two others, where the temporary camps are being set up, had not, he claimed.

"The health officials said the villagers used to chase them away when they would go to vaccinate their children. They had wrong ideas about vaccination. Now they have given their word that they will get vaccinated," he added.

He also claimed the field officials did not inform their superiors about the 'unwillingness' of the villagers to allow their children to be vaccinated.

"We could have taken measures had they informed the Upazila health officer. Now we've ordered the Upazila health officers of the 11 districts in Chittagong division to visit the remote hilly and shoal areas, and report within a week whether all the children are getting vaccinated," he said.

Speaking at the conference, DGHS Line Director Prof Abul Hashem Khan took the blame for the failure to bring the marginalised people under vaccination programme.

"We'll open community clinic at Tripura Para at the earliest. Before that, a satellite clinic will be set up on an emergency basis," he said.

Asked whether the families of the dead children would get any compensation, he said, "The loss of a death cannot be compensated. But I will request the health minister to extend help. I hope the health minister and the prime minister will do this."

He also said a five-year 'tribal health programme' will be launched in the hilly districts with the help of the World Bank, World Health Organization and UNICEF.

Six health officials transferred

Civil Surgeon Siddiqui said six health officials have been transferred for negligence of duty leading to the failure to vaccinate the Tripura Para children.

The transferred officials are Sitakunda Health Inspector Khaled Mohammad Humayun, Assistan Health Inspector Reba Mahajan, and Health Assistants Nilufar Akter, Badrun Nahar Begum, Tafura Begum and Nurul Karim.

"But I admit that we all are responsible," he added. 

It was said in the conference that a total of 92 children of Tripura Para were admitted to Chittagong Medical College Hospital and BITID hospital.

BITID is releasing 20 of the 29 children admitted there, said the hospital's Director Prof MA Hasan Chowdhury.