Bangladesh HC asks Yunus why measles death won’t be compensated

Bangladesh High Court on Tuesday issued a rule asking authorities to explain why Tk 1 crore in compensation should not be paid to the father of a child who died of measles, allegedly due to negligence in the government vaccination programme, local media reported.

Respondents of the rule, Professor Muhammad Yunus, in his capacity as the chief adviser of the past interim administration and five others have been asked to respond to the rule within four weeks.

The seven-month child died at a private hospital on May 26, following which his father filed the writ petition in July.

The writ petition alleged that a shortage of measles vaccines and the interim government’s negligence regarding the vaccination programme caused his son’s death.

Earlier, different organisations in Bangladesh held demonstrations demanding trial of former chief adviser Yunus for the deaths of several hundreds of children from measles.

Several hundreds of children have died across the country due to a measles outbreak during the recent period.

UNICEF had warned the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government of a looming vaccine shortage in Bangladesh months before the crisis deepened but the government did not pay heed to the warning.

In a letter sent on Feb 10, two days before the parliamentary election, UNICEF Representative in Dhaka Rana Flowers urged former health advisor Nurjahan Begum to take immediate action to avoid a “major vaccine crisis,” reported the bdnews24.com, a leading news agency in Dhaka.