Punjab Chief Minister Najam Sethi has directed the Punjab Health Department to take immediate steps for prevention of measles in the provincial capital. He further directed to take all necessary measures for proper care and medical assistance to the children suffering from the disease.
It may be mentioned here that according to a report compiled by the Disease Surveillance System of the Punjab Information Technology Board, the number of measles cases in Punjab has reached 7,794 since January this year.
Five districts — Lahore, Gujranwala, Muzaffargarh, Dera Ghazi Khan and Rawalpindi — have been declared high risk, said an official, adding that data revealed that the provincial capital had topped among the other districts with 2,539 cases. There are 691 measles cases in Gujranwala, 430 in Muzaffargarh, 344 in Dera Ghazi Khan and 281 in Rawalpindi.
The official said six children had died of the epidemic in the last four months. Among them three died in Lahore. He said that according to the reports, 80 per cent of the total measles-affected children were not administered vaccine during routine immunization coverage and blamed the factor the main reason behind the outbreak of the disease in Punjab.