Sylhet hospitals buckle under measles surge, 4 die with symptoms in 24 hours
Hospitals across Sylhet are struggling to cope with a surge in measles and measles-like cases, with patients being forced to share beds or receive treatment on floors as the number of admissions far exceeds available capacity.
At Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital, 186 patients are currently admitted against 38 designated beds, with some beds accommodating three patients while others are being treated on floors and even near the lifts.
The 100-bed Shaheed Shamsuddin Ahmed Hospital, which was designated as a dedicated measles hospital on March 26 to ease pressure on Osmani Medical College Hospital, is also operating well beyond capacity. It currently has 162 patients, most of them children.
The situation is not limited to the two government hospitals. Private owned Parkview Medical College Hospital currently has 30 measles patients, while 10 are admitted to Ragib-Rabeya Medical College Hospital. Several upazila health complexes are also struggling to accommodate new patients.
As Sylhet has no dedicated children’s hospital, families are often moving from one facility to another in search of beds. Some eventually have to settle for treatment on the floors of government hospitals.
Azir Uddin, who was staying with his daughter Wajiha at Shaheed Shamsuddin Ahmed Hospital, said his daughter has thalassaemia and had also developed a rash.
“We have been at the hospital for the past two days because of this. Her condition has improved somewhat now. We have been struggling with the overcrowding, with two patients having to share a single bed. However, the treatment we are receiving is fairly good,” he said.
For Jonaed Ahmed, however, finding a hospital bed proved a far greater challenge. He first went to Osmani Medical College Hospital to have his niece admitted after she fell ill.
“We could not get a bed there. We then went to four other private hospitals, but could not find a bed at any of them. Finally, we somehow managed to get a bed at Parkview and had her treated there. But there are no vacant beds here either now,” he said.
According to data from the Sylhet office of the Directorate General of Health Services, 1,044 confirmed measles cases were recorded in the division between January 1 and September 12. A total of 164 people have died from confirmed or suspected measles-related illness during the period.
In the past 24 hours alone, 146 patients with measles or related symptoms were admitted to hospitals across the division, taking the total number of patients currently undergoing treatment to 495.
Four children died with measles-like symptoms in the 24 hours until Monday morning, according to a report from the Office of the Divisional Director of Health, Sylhet. Three died at Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital and one at Shaheed Shamsuddin Ahmed Hospital.
The four victims included two from Sylhet, one from Sunamganj and one from Habiganj. Of the 164 deaths recorded so far, 10 were confirmed measles deaths, while 154 involved patients who died with symptoms of the disease.
Dr Md Khasruzzaman Rony, resident medical officer at Shaheed Shamsuddin Ahmed Hospital, said the facility was facing shortages of doctors, nurses and other staff.
“The facilities that were developed when the hospital was designated for Covid-19 treatment are no longer available,” he said, adding that the hospital currently has only two paediatricians despite most of its 162 patients being children.
Dr Rony said most patients who died after developing measles symptoms had also been suffering from other serious illnesses.
“Many of them had pneumonia, heart problems and other complications. They are not dying from measles alone,” he said.
Dr Mohammad Nur-e-Alam Shamim, assistant director for disease control at the Sylhet health department, said there had been no deaths in the previous three days before four patients died at two hospitals on Monday.
“All those who died had other illnesses as well. We are doing everything possible from our side,” he said.