Unvaxxed 9-year-old dies of measles; oldest in city

A resident of Mumbai Central’s Madanpura locality, the boy became the tenth confirmed casualty of the infection.

Mumbai: A 9-year-old boy, who was not immunised against measles, succumbed to the viral infection recently. The cause of death was confirmed in a lab report on Wednesday. He is also the oldest child to die of measles since the fresh outbreak of the disease in the last week of September.

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A resident of Mumbai Central’s Madanpura locality, the boy became the tenth confirmed casualty of the infection, with reports of five others still awaited. Three other children who died in the city were from nearby towns.

According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the child first developed the symptoms of measles on December 12 but was taken to a civic hospital ten days later when he experienced breathlessness. “Our doctors tried to resuscitate him when his breathing got extremely heavy but he could not be saved,” informed a BMC official. The child passed away on December 22.

Meanwhile, during the outbreak response immunisation (ORI) undertaken by the civic body, 30.7% of the eligible children between 9 months to 5 years of age and 40.2% of eligible children in the 6 months and 9 months have been immunised.