KARACHI: Five more children lost their lives on Tuesday due to an outbreak of measles in different parts of Sindh, DawnNews reported. Moreover, the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday said the disease had claimed the lives of 210 children in Sindh in 2012.

Tuesday's deaths were reported from Sindh's Ghospur, Guddu and Tangwani regions.

Moreover, 16 children had lost their lives in different areas of the province a day earlier — five died in Ghotki district, four in taluka Thull, three in Kandhkot city, two in taluka Tangwani and one each in Sukkur and Jacobabad districts.

Also on Tuesday, the WHO said measles cases had surged in southern Pakistan in 2012, with hundreds of children dying of the disease.

The WHO did not give a reason for the increase in deaths, but a provincial health official said the disease-hit areas were the ones where poor families did not vaccinate their children.

Maryam Yunus, a spokesperson for the WHO, said Tuesday that 306 children had died in Pakistan of measles in 2012, compared to 64 the year before.

She said the jump was most pronounced in Sindh province, where measles killed 210 children in 2012. She said only 28 children had died there in 2011.

Provincial health minister Saghir Ahmed said 100 children died in Sindh in December alone, mostly in areas where many go unvaccinated.