KARACHI, Jan 1: Measles cases surged in Pakistan in 2012, and hundreds of children died from the disease, an international health body said on Tuesday.

In recent days, government officials said they has launched an immunisation campaign to reach children in the worst-hit areas. But the country still struggles with a beleaguered healthcare system, unsanitary conditions in many regions and a lack of education about how to prevent disease. All those factors make it difficult to combat infectious diseases such as measles and polio.

Also, many oppose vaccinations, suspecting they are meant to harm their people.

A spokeswoman for the World Health Organisation, Maryam Yunus, said that 306 children died in the country from measles in 2012, compared to 64 the year before.

She said the jump was most pronounced in Sindh, where measles killed 210 children in 2012.

She said 28 children died there in 2011.

The WHO did not give a reason for the increase in deaths, but a provincial health official in Sindh said that the disease hit areas where poor families did not vaccinate their children.

Provincial Health Minister Saghir Ahmed said 100 children died in Sindh in December alone, mostly in areas where many people were not vaccinated.

He said health officials recently launched a campaign to vaccinate 2.9 million children in the affected areas of the province and urged parents to get their children vaccinated.

Measles is an extremely infectious disease spread by coughing and sneezing or personal contact. It causes a fever, cough and a rash all over the body. Most people who contract the disease recover, but it can be fatal for malnourished children.—AP