KHAIRPUR, Dec 29: Eighty-three cases of measles were confirmed in Khairpur district during the past five weeks, according to a survey conducted by the district health department.

Speaking to Dawn on Saturday, the Khairpur district health officer, Dr Ahsan Siyal, said that there had been 574 suspected measles cases in the district out of which 83 had been confirmed.

According to him, the district health department had been conducting a survey of for cases of measles with a doctor from the World Health Organisation (WHO). He said that a vaccination drive was also being conducted simultaneously, and, at the moment children in Gul Mohammad village, Thari Mirwah taluka, were being immunised.

Talking about the causes of the disease, Dr Siyal said that parents did not take their children to a doctor immediately after they fell ill and used traditional methods to cure the ailments which worsened the problem. He said that parents should inform health teams of the WHO and the district health department if they suspected that the children were suffering from measles so that health teams could visit such areas and vaccinate the children.

When contacted, the deputy commissioner of Khairpur district, Mohammad Abbas Baloch, said that the expanded programme of immunisation would vaccinate children against measles in 11 districts of upper Sindh from January.