Hill Voice, 25 May 2020, Rangamati: Two more children have been reported to have infected with measles in Sajek Union of Baghaichhari upazila of Rangamati district.

According to local sources, on May 21, 2020 the two children contracted measles in Ratanpur village of No. 165 Lonkar Mouza of Sajek Union. The children are Nirupam Chakma’s 7-month-old child Purnadhan Chakma and Tarun Chakma’s 8-year-old son Badikko Chakma.

There are 17 families of indigenous people living in the village. The villagers fear that other children in the village may also get measles.

A person named Pijor Chakma wrote on his Facebook wall that there are no doctors, no hospitals, no medicine, no food, no money, no communication system. There is no body to monitor. Neither the administration nor the people’s representatives look after the villegers.

He further said that due to the increase in the incidence of measles in Sajek, 3/4 children have been taken to Chittagong for better treatment by helicopter some days ago. As it was widely disseminated in the news media, the people of the country came to know that cooperation was being provided in such remote areas.

But the responsibility of the state ended with the treatment of 3/4 people. Children in Sajek are still dying due to lack of treatment, Pijor Chakma alleged.

According to the Kapeeing Foundation, it has been 90 children of Baghaichari Sajek in Rangamati district; Lama, Ruma, Thanchi and Bandarban Sadar upazilas in Bandarban district and Dighinala and Panchari upazila in Khagrachari district infected with measles since late February.

A total of 10 children have died so far. About 659 people in the 37 villages of the said 7 upazilas have been infected with measles, of which 456 are children.

The hospital authorities and the administration have tried to hide the fact the real picture of not reaching government health care in these remote areas by saying that the disease is sometimes said as ‘unknown disease’, sometimes ‘prejudice exists among the affected hill people areas and unwillingness to take medical treatment’ etc.