Anti-measles effort unsatisfactory: LHC

The Express Tribune

The Lahore High Court has instructed the Health Department to take urgent measures to quell the measles epidemic, which has claimed over a hundred lives in the province in the last six months. “The steps taken by the Health Department to control the disease are unsatisfactory … children are dying every day,” Justice Khalid Mahmood Khan said on Monday while hearing a petition against the government’s failure to control the measles outbreak. The LHC summoned the Health Department’s director general and other officials for the next hearing on May 29. The petitioner, Advocate Azhar Siddique, has submitted that the government should have taken measures to prevent the outbreak of measles. The ongoing epidemic, he said, was a glaring failure of state machinery. He asked the court to order a judicial inquiry looking into the causes of the deaths due to the disease. The counsel also asked the court to issue directions to the federal and provincial governments to take measures to stop the spread of the disease and to give a comprehensive report on the matter for the purpose of holding to account those responsible. He said that the governments should establish a permanent authority tasked with stopping epidemics, in view of the measles and dengue outbreaks.