Children Dying from Measles, Yet the Excuse is ‘No Syringes’

BD Digest Report

Measles has taken the form of an epidemic in the country. More than 700 affected and over 50 children have lost their lives — when the statistics are enough to send shivers down the spine, an unbelievable negligence of the health administration has come to light. Although enough measles vaccines for a campaign of two crore doses are available in the country, simply because there are ‘no syringes’ and due to waiting for funds from the donor agency ‘Gavi’, the vaccination program cannot be started for the next two months. Experts are viewing this inefficiency and bureaucratic complexity of the administration not merely as ‘negligence’, but as ‘extreme neglect towards public health’.

According to information from the EPI (Expanded Programme on Immunization) office, the vaccines required for the national measles-rubella campaign have arrived in the country. But there are no syringes needed to administer those vaccines into the body. Mohammad Shahriar Sajjad, Deputy Director of EPI, has stated that they are dependent on financial assistance from the global alliance ‘Gavi’ for syringes and related logistical support. Since that money has not yet been received, syringes will be purchased in phases during May, June, and July. That means, instead of providing vaccines on an urgent basis, the government is now relying on the mercy of the donor agency and pushing children’s lives into risk.

Investigations have revealed that some hasty decisions taken during the previous interim government are the main cause of today’s crisis. The process that began by canceling the long-successful ‘Sector Programme’ (HPNSP) and bringing everything under the revenue sector ultimately got stuck in bureaucratic tangles. Whether vaccines would be purchased through UNICEF or the government would buy them directly, how much financial profit or loss there would be — files have been passed around among the Health Ministry, Finance Ministry, and the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General over these issues, causing several valuable months to pass. As a result, the vaccine stock has run out and it has not been possible to conduct the campaign on time.

According to Dr. Mushtaq Hossain, former Chief Scientific Officer of IEDCR, the authorities had been warned about this risk earlier. He said, “The authorities did not listen. One measles patient can spread the infection to 16 to 18 people. The current delay carries the risk of the infection spreading terribly.”

Strong criticism is also circulating on social media regarding this mismanagement. Ordinary people are raising questions: Is buying two crore syringes so impossible for the Bangladesh government that it has to wait two months for it? When children’s lives are in crisis, why was no initiative taken to procure syringes immediately by using emergency funds?

Measles is already spreading rapidly in districts including Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Chapainawabganj, Pabna, Barishal, and Mymensingh. Although according to NITTAGS’s decision the campaign was supposed to be completed by June, there is doubt in the public mind about how feasible it will be due to field-level preparation and the syringe crisis.

This slow pace of the administration and the ‘donor agency dependent’ mentality is turning the long-standing success of the country’s immunization program into dust. Will the policymakers involved in this mismanagement take the responsibility for the blood of every child who has died from measles? — Such questions are now swirling in conscious circles.