DADU, Jan 19: The death toll in the measles outbreak in Dadu district continued to go up with three more children falling victim to the disease on Saturday in two different villages on Saturday.

The victims were identified as two-year-old Nayab, daughter of Haji Khan Laaro, who died in Wali Mohammad village near Kakar town; three-year-old Aasat, daughter of Shaukat; and one-year-old Dilbar, son of Shaukat Chandio, both of whom died in Haithean Mojhar village of Mahar taluka.

Independent sources put the death toll over a period of 31 days in Dadu district at 31.

Residents of the villages said that no medical teams or vaccinators had as yet visited the affected areas of the district despite reporting of deaths on a daily basis and complaints of a large number of children having been affected by measles. “We are helpless as neither the vaccine nor the medical staff is available at the local health facilities,” they said, adding that no senior health officials was in a position to help them out.

Haji Khan Laaro, a resident of Wali Mohammad village, said that the officials concerned were not doing the needful despite the situation having turned alarming for weeks together. He said that as many as 50 more children were suffering from measles in his village alone but their helpless parents could do nothing but wait for the vaccinators or doctors supposed to be sent to the village by the health department.

Shaukat Chandio said that scores of children were affected by measles in Haithean Monjhar village and his son was among the two who just fell victim to the disease but no one had as yet turned up to save the lives of other children. He appealed to Chief Minister’s Adviser on Relief Haleem Adil Shaikh to make arrangements for the shifting of all ailing children in his village to the taluka hospitals in Mahar and Khairpur Nathan Shah, where the adviser claimed to have made the necessary treatment available at his department’s expenses. Mr Chandio said that doctors at the two taluka hospitals were not admitting measles cases.

Dadu District Health Officer Dr Zahid Hussain Dawach speaking to this reporter, however, claimed that under the taluka health officer of Mahar, teams of doctors had already vaccinated children against measles in Haithean Monjhar village as well as certain other villages affected by the outbreak. “The teams were rushed to the village immediately after receiving reports of fatalities,” he claimed, adding that he himself visited some affected villages of Mahar taluka and directed doctors to provide urgent and proper treatment to patients in order to contain the outbreak.

The official in charge of the World Health Organisation office in Dadu district, Dr Sohail Ahmed, told Dawn that isolation wards had been established at Mahar, Khairpur Nathan Shah and Johi taluka hospitals where 18 children were admitted. An isolation ward at the Civil Hospital Dadu was already functioning, he said.