The previous government’s short-sighted decisions and failure to conduct measles-rubella campaigns for five-and-a-half years have left children facing life-threatening risks, Health Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Hossain told parliament on Monday.
Responding to an urgent notice raised by Rangpur-4 MP Akhter Hossen, the minister said campaigns are supposed to be held every four years, but no such campaign took place for the last five-and-a-half years, depriving a large number of children of vaccination.
“Short-sighted decisions of the previous government created delays in the vaccine procurement and supply system, leading to a severe crisis in the reserves of six important vaccines, including measles,” the minister said.
The current outbreak is higher among unvaccinated children, he added.
Emergency vaccination underway
Under the directive of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, emergency vaccination began on 5 April in 18 districts and 30 high-risk upazilas, targeting children aged 6 months to under 5 years, the health minister said.
In the first phase, the target is to bring 12 lakh children under vaccination coverage. On the first day alone, 73,000 children were vaccinated against a target of 76,000, achieving 96 percent success.
The programme will begin on 12 April in Dhaka, Mymensingh, and Barishal city corporations, and from 3 May in the remaining areas nationwide, the minister added.
Isolation wards have been arranged in all government hospitals across the country, with an additional 250 isolation beds being prepared in Rajshahi, the minister said.
Along with preparing ICUs and ventilators, arrangements have been made to supply oxygen to the lungs using a new oxygen flow system developed by ICDDR,B at a cost of only Tk 300.
Akhter Hossen alleges field-level mismanagement
In a supplementary question, MP Akhtar Hossain alleged that despite allocations on paper, ordinary people are not getting isolation or ICU facilities in hospitals. He also noted that about 25 percent of the health sector budget remains unspent, with Tk11,000 crore unutilised in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
In response, the health minister said additional measles vaccines are being procured from UNICEF using Tk604 crore that remained unspent during the Covid-19 period. He assured that the ministry is vigilant to prevent any future vaccine shortage.
All leave for health workers has been cancelled to increase field-level supervision, and coordination with development partners including the World Bank and Unicef has been strengthened, the minister added.
