Measles: 8 more children die in a day

959 people have been hospitalised with the disease in the 24-hour count

Eight more children with measles or measles-like symptoms have died over the past 24 hours. One of the cases was confirmed to be measles.

In its regular measles bulletin on Sunday, the Directorate General of Health Services said there had been a total of 43 deaths from confirmed cases of measles nationwide since Mar 15. In addition, another 216 people with symptoms consistent with the disease had died over the same period.

The Dhaka Division has seen the most deaths since the outbreak with 102. The Rajshahi Division has 68.

The DGHS says that 143 new measles cases have been confirmed in the past 24 hours. During this time, 1,421 people have come to the hospital with measles-like symptoms. Of them, 959 have been admitted to the hospital.

The highest number of hospital admissions over the past day – 404 - have been in Dhaka. Meanwhile, Rangpur saw the lowest number of fresh cases with eight.

Since Mar 15, some 32,208 patients are suspected to have had measles. Of these, 4,603 have been diagnosed with the highly-infectious disease.

Meanwhile, a vaccination programme for 18 million children was launched across the country on Apr 20. The programme has vaccinated 7,376,995 children across eight divisions so far. In addition, 1,135,172 children have been vaccinated in the 12 city corporations.