Bangladesh has witnessed a measles outbreak after two decades, with the number of confirmed and suspected cases surpassing 100,000.
Over the past 95 days, a total of 100,677 people have been affected by measles across the country. Of them, 10,773 cases were laboratory-confirmed, while 89,904 were categorized as suspected measles cases.
During the same period, 666 deaths linked to measles and its symptoms were reported. Among them, 93 children died from confirmed measles infections, while 573 deaths involved patients showing measles symptoms.
The information was revealed in the latest report released by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on Thursday.
According to the DGHS regular bulletin, a total of 74,184 patients with measles or related symptoms have so far been admitted to hospitals nationwide, of whom 70,503 have recovered and been discharged.
The outbreak began at the start of the year, but spread across the country from late February. The DGHS started maintaining official statistics and data on the disease from March 15.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 25,000 children were infected with measles in 2005.
Meanwhile, DGHS data on Thursday showed that five people died with measles symptoms in the last 24 hours, bringing the number of deaths among suspected cases to 573. In addition, 93 deaths have been recorded among confirmed measles patients.
Overall, the total number of deaths associated with measles and its symptoms this year has reached 666. Bangladesh has not seen such a high number of measles-related deaths in the past two decades.
So far, the highest number of deaths linked to measles and its symptoms has been recorded in Dhaka with 297 deaths, followed by Rajshahi division with 89, Sylhet with 75, Chattogram with 58, Barishal with 57, Mymensingh with 55, Khulna with 27, and Rangpur with 8.
