Measles cases on the rise in KP

PESHAWAR: Measles cases are on the rise in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with hundreds of children requiring hospital treatment daily, many experiencing severe symptoms of the infectious disease, signaling an alarming trend towards endemicity.

According to paediatricians, the situation has worsened for over two months. They believe that hundreds of children may have died of the disease so far but neither the government nor health authorities have been able to take note of the issue.“This is an endemic disease as we have been receiving patients from almost every district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It’s been two months and it’s growing rapidly. We are helpless to save these babies from being taken away from their parents,” said a senior paediatrician.

Pleading anonymity, he said all the children’s departments in Peshawar’s three major tertiary care hospitals- Lady Reading Hospital, Khyber Teaching Hospital and the Hayatabad Medical Complex- were being flooded with children suffering from measles.

“We don’t have any official information about the death toll so far but it might be in the hundreds as children are dying from measles the way chickens used to die from bird flu. We are helpless and cannot save them from being consumed by the deadly disease of measles,” said the senior paediatrician.

Other paediatricians in the LRH, KTH and HMC shared almost a similar experience, saying they are struggling hard to save kids’ lives but the situation has become quite serious. “The parents are taking their children to Peshawar from different places such as Kohat, Bannu, Karak, Dera Ismail Khan, Mardan, Nowshera, Swabi, Charsadda, the tribal districts and the Malakand region. The director general of Health must come out of hibernation and launch a vaccination campaign on an emergency basis to save the lives of children,” a paediatrician in KTH opined.

The paediatricians appealed to Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur and Health Minister Syed Qasim Ali Shah to take note of the situation and order an inquiry as to why the Health Department has not been able to launch vaccination and then start immunization in the province or at least in the endemic areas.Efforts were made to seek comments from Director General Health and Services, Dr Shaukat Ali, but his cell phone was found switched off.