1-year-old’s death takes measles toll in Mumbai to 10

While 11 deaths this year have been linked to the disease in the city, the BMC has confirmed 10 so far.

The number of deaths from measles in Mumbai this year rose to 10 on Tuesday after a one-year-old boy succumbed to the disease during treatment at Kasturba Hospital.

While 11 deaths this year have been linked to the disease in the city, the BMC has confirmed 10 so far. (Representative image)

According to a report issued by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the city’s civic body, the boy had a history of fever, cough and cold for a month and developed rashes on November 12.

“He was initially admitted to a private hospital and transferred to Kasturba Hospital on November 13. The child was not vaccinated for measles,” said a BMC health official. The boy was put on a ventilator on November 21 after he developed respiratory failure, the official added.

“His condition worsened and he succumbed to the infection on November 22,” said the official.

While 11 deaths this year have been linked to the disease in the city, the BMC has confirmed 10 so far.

On Tuesday, the civic body found twelve new cases across the city.

So far this year, Mumbai has reported 3,378 suspected measles cases, of which 220 have been confirmed by laboratories. A total of 114 children are admitted in eight hospitals across the city.

“Two children are on a ventilator and five are in the ICU but not on a ventilator. We have 28 children on oxygen beds. All cases of fever with rash are administered 2 doses of Vit-A, 2nd dose after 24 hours,” said the official.

The state’s public health minister, Tanaji Sawant, said on Tuesday that health systems are succeeding in controlling measles infections. He visited the Kasturba Hospital and reviewed the measles prevention measures. He added that the infections will be “fully under control” in the next few days through extensive survey and vaccination.

Health experts hit out at the administration for the delay in combating infections.

“The cases were rising from September. It is a failure on the part of our public health department that we did not anticipate and strengthen the surveillance then like we did now. With the kind of public health machinery in place in Mumbai right now for measles, cases will get in control. But, for that, we lost a few lives to recognise the magnitude of the problem,” said Dr Subhash Salunkhe, epidemiologist and former director general of health services (Maharashtra).

He added that Mumbai has a robust public health system and still failed to take cognisance of the fact that there are a large number of children in slums who have not been vaccinated for the disease. “Do we require such outbreaks to learn lessons? If there are no deaths, no one bothers,” he added.

A senior paediatrician who works in a BMC hospital said the outbreak and deaths could have been prevented if the surveillance and vaccination drive had started earlier.

“This is the season when measles cases rise. The corporation was aware of the fact that because of the pandemic, there was a large number of unvaccinated children in these high-risk wards. When the cases started rising, surveillance and vaccination should have started promptly. Unlike other viruses, measles are easy to control. Humans are the only natural hosts of measles virus. Two doses of MMR vaccine are about 97% effective at preventing measles; one dose is about 93% effective,” said the doctor.

In 2018, the BMC had carried out a massive measles vaccination campaign after 31 cases were reported.

Dr Amin Kaba, a paediatrician who was part of the campaign, said the idea was to break the chain of transmission and achieve elimination of measles and rubella through the campaign.

“It got washed out with the pandemic. Many children from these areas were not vaccinated making them vulnerable. We managed to bring down measles cases with the campaign,” he said. Dr Kaba added that the number of deaths also depends on when the child reached the hospital, immunity level, vaccination status.

Dr Nitin Shah, a paediatrician and PD Hinduja Hospital said measles are known to be severe in young babies who are not innoculated. “The deaths are not surprising. It was because of the severity that measles vaccine was included in public health in India in 1980s,” he said.

Dr Sanjeev Kumar, additional municipal commissioner, BMC, blamed the pandemic for the large unvaccinated population in the slum pockets. “We did the survey in October and that’s when we found out the number of unvaccinated children. It is because of pandemic that this situation happened but we have strength our survellaince, vaccination programme and getting the situation under control,” he said.