An alarming surge in measles cases among infants under six months of age has pushed Dhaka's DNCC Dedicated Hospital to a critical juncture, with health authorities warning of an escalating public health crisis as patient admissions remain relentlessly high eight months into the outbreak.
On Tuesday (Oct 1), three-and-a-half-month-old Yusuf was admitted to the Mohakhali facility after being diagnosed with measles three days prior. He is among 32 infants under six months old currently receiving treatment at the hospital, a trend that directors describe as an ominous indicator of a compounding medical emergency. Overall, the facility housed 452 patients as of Tuesday afternoon, with all 50 beds in the intensive care unit operating at maximum capacity.
Hospital authorities are currently grappling with severe operational constraints, compounded by a lack of specialized medical staff and a building that was originally engineered as a multi-story market before being repurposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the facility has subsequently treated dengue patients and, since March, measles patients of all demographics, it has never transitioned into a fully equipped, permanent hospital structure. Nursing staff has dwindled from 135 to 110 personnel, leaving the remaining medical workers severely overburdened and struggling to manage the constant influx of families traveling from remote districts such as Madaripur and Bhola.
Data compiled by the hospital administration underscores a glaring vaccination deficit among the afflicted population. Out of the 452 patients admitted on Tuesday, a staggering 393 individuals—representing 87 percent—had never received a measles vaccine. The age-based breakdown reveals that admissions include 32 infants under six months, 246 children aged between seven months and two years, 89 children aged two to five years, and 85 patients older than five. Hospital Director Colonel Latifa Rahman emphasized that infants under six months are not even of eligible age for vaccination, making their severe infection rates a deeply concerning phenomenon.
Echoing these alarming statistics, Health Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Hossain noted during an event at the Bangladesh Institute of Child and Health on Monday that a significant segment of society, including numerous mothers, are failing to administer routine immunizations to their children. Since the onset of operations at the Mohakhali facility, a total of 22,790 patients have been admitted, resulting in 203 fatalities, a toll that continues to climb as medical teams battle both resource shortages and widespread vaccine hesitancy.
