DIPHTHERIA AMONG ROHINGYAS Vaccination launched to check spread

The government in association with international health aid groups on Tuesday launched a vaccination campaign against diphtheria to check the fast spread of the disease among Rohingyas living in Cox’s Bazar.
Different United Nations agencies in separate statements on Tuesday said that diphtheria continued to spread among Rohingyas at an alarming rate.
‘Recent data from the WHO Early Warning Alert and Response System and Médecins Sans Frontières shows 722 probable diphtheria cases, including nine deaths, in the camps and makeshift settlements hosting the refugees, between November 12 and 10 December,’ said a UN children agency UNICEF statement on the day.
Health aid providers said that they spotted 110 patients suffering from the highly infectious respiratory disease till December 6 last and 250 till December 8. 
The first suspected case was identified on November 10, but health workers were unable to trace the patient. Another suspected case was found on November 19.
The government with the support of UNICEF, World Health Organisation and GAVI, Vaccine Alliance on Tuesday launched a vaccination campaign against diphtheria and other preventable diseases for all Rohingya children aged six weeks to six years living at 12 camps and temporary settlements in Cox’s Bazar.
Immunisation will cover nearly 2,55,000 children at Ukhia and Teknaf. 
‘The outbreak shows a steep rise in cases, an indicator of the extreme vulnerability of children in the Rohingya camps and settlements. This calls for immediate action to protect them from this killer disease. Vaccination provides effective prevention,’ UNICEF representative in Bangladesh Edouard Beigbeder said.
‘Diphtheria usually appears among vulnerable populations that have not received routine vaccinations, such as the Rohingyas,’ he said. 
‘The government will do everything necessary to contain this outbreak,’ Directorate General of Health Services director general Abul Kalam Azad said.
Next week, three rounds of tetanus diphtheria vaccines will be administered to Rohingya children aged seven to 15 years. A total of 9,00,000 doses of tetanus diphtheria were set to arrive in Bangladesh on Tuesday, said UNICEF statement.
WHO representative in Bangladesh Navaratnasamy Paranietharan said that they were moving quickly to control this diphtheria outbreak before it spins out of control.
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in a statement on the day said that diphtheria continued to spread at an alarming rate.
‘In a context where the refugee population is already extremely vulnerable to disease outbreaks primarily due to low vaccination coverage in Rakhine State and overcrowded, unsanitary living conditions in refugee sites in Bangladesh, diphtheria is rapidly spreading in camps in Cox’s Bazar,’ it said.
Highly infectious respiratory disease diphtheria spreads through air given out by sneezing and or coughing, or hand-to-hand and hand-to-mouth contact, said WHO. 
First symptoms include a sore throat, fever, and a loss of appetite. Membrane may form in the throat and tonsils. Case fatality rate is generally five per cent to 10 per cent but it could go up to 20 per cent among children under five and adults over 40 years old, it added.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net