SUKKUR, Jan 3: The district administration of Sukkur released a special fund of Rs3.5 million for providing meals and medicines to about 200 children who contracted measles in the past 35 days.

The children are under treatment at the Civil Hospital Sukkur, Red Crescent Hospital Sukkur and Sukkur Hospital.

Speaking to journalists on Thursday, the deputy commissioner of Sukkur district, Bilal Ahmed Memon, said that a 12-member team from the National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, reached Sukkur on Thursday night and would begin work from Friday morning.

He said that the team would meet doctors to collect complete information regarding the measles outbreak. They would also meet the parents of ailing children and perform a technical investigation after examining the children.

He said that security arrangements had been made by the district administration and the police for the NIH team which would visit far-off rural areas including Salehpat, Kandhra, Sangrar, Ali Wahan, Arrore and Panu Aqil. The team would submit its report within four days, he added.

The deputy commissioner said that the measles outbreak had now been brought under control to an extent, adding that during the past two days health department teams had vaccinated around 80,000 children across the district. The vaccination campaign would continue for a week, he added.

Moreover, he said, necessary medicines and food items would be distributed among affected children by the health department on the recommendations of the NIH team.

He added that various corporate organisations had expressed their willingness to provide eatable items such as biscuits and milk for the children.

Demand for suspension of health minister

Activists of the Sindhiani Tehreek, the women’s wing of Awami Tehreek (AT), organised a protest rally on Thursday to demand immediate suspension of the Sindh health minister and the health secretary for letting measles take the lives so many children in Sindh, our staff correspondent in Hyderabad adds.

The rally emerged from Haider Chowk and ended at the Hyderabad Press Club. Activists carried banners and placards, and chanted slogans against the Sindh chief minister, health minister and health secretary, blaming them for the measles outbreak.

The protest was led by Sindhiani Tehreek president Umrah Samoon and AT leader Noor Ahmed Katiyar.

They urged the government to lodge a case against the Sindh chief minister, the health minister and the health secretary and conduct a thorough investigation into poor health arrangements. They said that measles cases had also been reported from Hyderabad and the affected children were admitted to Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences Hospital, Hyderabad.