Child deaths from measles and its symptoms near 1,200 as hundreds of thousands of children remain outside vaccination

The number of child deaths from measles and measles symptoms in the country is approaching 1,200 — a recent report has revealed this alarming picture. At the same time, another report says that amid the measles-ravaged situation, hundreds of thousands of children have been left outside vaccination because of discrepancies in data and a lack of preparation.

Putting the two reports together makes two sides of the crisis clear. On the one hand, the number of infections and deaths is rising; on the other, a huge number of children are being left out even though they were supposed to be covered by the immunisation programme.

The issue of discrepancies in the data has been particularly highlighted in the report. In other words, because there are inconsistencies even in the accounts of which child has received a vaccine and which has not, many children have remained outside the programme's notice, the report suggests.

A lack of preparation has also been identified as a major reason for this exclusion. If vaccination activities are carried out at the field level without adequate preparation, the very children who most urgently need to be reached are the first to fall through the cracks — the picture in the report has brought that fear to the fore.

The number of child deaths reaching close to 1,200 has made the situation all the more grave. So many children dying of a preventable disease like measles has called the gaps in the vaccination system into serious question.

The most urgent question now is how quickly the hundreds of thousands of excluded children can be brought under vaccination coverage and whether activities can be carried out following an accurate list once the discrepancies in the data are removed.

Once the official and detailed statistics of those concerned and the next steps are known, the path to tackling this crisis will become clearer. For now, the message of the two reports is one and the same — there is little room for delay; vaccination must be sped up.