The government has identified measles as the cause of nine children's deaths in Chittagong's Sitakunda Upazila, but the revelation has put the whole health sector into question as those kids in a small tribe were never vaccinated.
Director General for Health Services Prof Abul Kalam Azad explained their investigation reports to journalists on Monday and said "sorry" on behalf of the health officials who for decades could not reach that small tribe group consisting of 85 families who live in a remote Tripura Parha of Sonaichhari in Baraulia.
Azad said they are now revisiting their "whole micro-planning system" at the village level that they carry out before any immunization campaign, reports bdnews24.com.
But, flanked by a WHO medical officer, the director general assured that there is no alarm of measles outbreak in Bangladesh.
"The measles situation is as usual across Bangladesh. This is a small isolated pocket and they never take modern treatment," he said, adding that "if they took modern treatment then those deaths could be prevented".
Earlier, a team of the government's disease monitoring agency, IEDCR, rushed to the hilly village on July 11 following reports of deaths of children from an unknown disease.
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