KABUL (SW) – Doctors at the Indira Gandhi Children’s Health Hospital in Kabul have told Salam Watandar that the number of children suffering from measles has increased by 70% in the last one and a half months.
This is after the World Health Organization raised concerns about the increase in cases of measles in Afghanistan
Mohibullah Habibi, the head of the infectious disease department at the hospital, says that nearly 500 children have been diagnosed with measles recently and five of them have died. He added: “In the past, we had six or seven visitors a day. Now we admit 12 to 15 patients. 280 patients have been registered last month and it has doubled. We have three to four patients in each bed. In nearly two months, 477 cases have been positive.”
The World Health Organization has warned of the increase in the number of children infected with measles in Afghanistan and asked families to vaccinate their children on time.
On the other hand, a number of families whose children are infected with measles say that due to the lack of facilities and lack of knowledge, they did not vaccinate their children against measles and now they are infected with this disease.
Sonia, whose two-year-old child is infected with measles, says: “He has been sick for five or six days and vomits a lot, does not eat anything. He has heartburn and pneumonia kind of symptoms. I did not receive the vaccine. We went to Pakistan and my child’s vaccines got missed.”
Sharifa, a resident of Bamyan, whose child is suffering from measles, says that due to the lack of treatment facilities in Bamyan hospitals, she had to bring her child to Kabul for treatment. “The child has been sick for 20 days. He was hospitalized in Bamyan, but did not recovered. The doctors said take him to Kabul. I didn’t get the vaccine either. I thought there was no problem and the child might have pneumonia and a high fever.”
Mastura, whose seven-month-old child contracted this disease, said: “We have been in the hospital for four days. The child is seven months old. It is not time for vaccination yet. He has fever, diarrhoea and nausea.”
Doctors consider pneumonia and red marks on the body of children as signs of them suffering from measles, and they say that to prevent this disease, families should vaccinate their children against measles and observe their hygiene.
ENDS
