Hang me… said health minister on 1200 deaths due to measles in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has had a long-running outbreak of the infectious disease measles, and more than 1,200 people, mostly children, have died from the disease. Seeing this, Prime Minister Tariq Rehman’s BNP government had to start a nationwide vaccination drive. The death toll from measles has now sparked a political outcry. The health minister of the country has taken responsibility for this death. When asked who should be held responsible for this death, he took responsibility and said, ‘Hang me’.

According to reports in Bangladeshi news outlets Kaler Kontho and Bangladesh Pratidin, the statement by Bangladesh Health Minister Sardar Mohammad Sakhawat Hussain comes amid growing criticism of the previous interim government of Mohammad Yunus.

Allegations of BNP government on Yunus government

The current BNP government has accused the Yunus government of failing to conduct nationwide measles vaccination campaigns and maintaining emergency vaccine stocks. Dhaka-based newspaper ‘The Daily Star’ quoted Minister of State MA Muhith as saying that a special commission is investigating the alleged wrongdoings during the Yunus government.

A measles outbreak that began in March this year has exposed major flaws in Bangladesh’s vaccination program. Despite the BNP government’s emergency nationwide vaccination drive, the death toll and cases of infection are rising, and children and infants who have not been vaccinated are particularly vulnerable.

Health Minister of Bangladesh said – Hang me

According to reports in Bangladeshi outlets Kaler Kontho and Bangladesh Pratidin, Health Minister Sardar Mohammad Sakhawat Hussain took responsibility for the deaths on Monday (November 9), saying it was not the administration’s failure but his own.

In fact, a reporter asked him whether the previous interim government or the current government should be held responsible for the deaths of nearly 1,200 children in the last 7 months. Regarding this, Health Minister Sakhawat Hussain said, ‘The responsibility is mine. hang me This is my failure, but I tried. This is not the failure of my government.

Are most vaccines imported from India?

The health minister also denied claims that Bangladesh’s measles vaccine was largely imported from India. He said only 8 percent of the vaccines came from India, while the rest were imported from Germany, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Indonesia. He said the vaccine has been tested and approved by WHO and supplied by UNICEF. Sakhawat Hussain also claimed that most of the children infected with measles have not yet been vaccinated and most of them are below 6 months of age.