HC seeks answers on vaccine supply, compensation for measles deaths
The High Court (HC) today directed the government to submit a report on the current status of storage, supply, availability, and adequacy of measles and rabies vaccines across the country.
The court asked the Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) to submit the report through an affidavit within 30 days.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. In response to a writ petition, the High Court also issued a rule asking the authorities to explain why families of children who died from measles or measles-like symptoms should not be compensated.
The court also asked why the health secretary should not be directed to form a 10-member expert committee to identify the root causes of the outbreak and those responsible.
Respondents include the secretaries to the health services division and home ministry, the DG of DGHS, and the director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), according to petitioner’s lawyers Mohammad Humaun Kabir Pallob and Khan Mohammad Shameem Aziz.
The HC bench of Justice Rajik Al Jalil and Justice Debashish Roy Chowdhury issued the order following a writ petition filed by the Law and Life Foundation Trust on May 10 as a public interest litigation.
The petition stated that close to 500 children have died since the measles outbreak began in March, with thousands more infected. The deaths, it argued, were neither sudden nor unavoidable but resulted from policy changes in vaccine procurement, disruption of effective mechanisms, disregard of warnings from international organisations, and inadequate healthcare infrastructure.
Barristers Pallob and Aziz represented the petitioner, while Attorney General Md Ruhul Quddus Kazal opposed the petition during the hearing.
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