Inside a Bangladesh hospital during a deadly measles outbreak | BBC News — Transcript

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1. 0:01Meet Arafat,
2. 0:03Hassan Ali,
3. 0:05Iyam,
4. 0:06Tanisha.
5. 0:08They're the faces of a deadly measles
6. 0:10outbreak.
7. 0:12>> Here in Bangladesh, it's been severe and
8. 0:13hospitals like these are struggling to
9. 0:15cope.
10. 0:18>> Lives upended by the force of the surge.
11. 0:21>> [snorts]
12. 0:23>> Measles anywhere is a threat everywhere.
13. 0:26[music]
14. 0:27Nearly 750 deaths in just 4 months.
15. 0:31>> We got no stocks. Vaccine stock was not
16. 0:33there to go for vaccination.
17. 0:35>> How did all the progress in Bangladesh
18. 0:38unravel so quickly?
19. 0:40And with such [music] devastating
20. 0:41consequences?
21. 0:47A measles ward in Mymensingh,
22. 0:50hot, humid, overbearing.
23. 0:54More than double the patients it can
24. 0:55handle.
25. 0:57Parents, their exhaustion, fear,
26. 1:01heavy in the air.
27. 1:05Beds a bleak privilege. Only the most
28. 1:08severe cases get one.
29. 1:134-month-old Arafat is one of them.
30. 1:15His parents' only child, he's battling
31. 1:18pneumonia and heart failure.
32. 1:23>> When we first heard that a new disease
33. 1:25had broken out, people in our village
34. 1:27were crying in panic.
35. 1:29I've cried so much that tears won't even
36. 1:31come to my eyes anymore.
37. 1:37>> Another Tanisha, 9 months old.
38. 1:41Her immune system weakened, her skin
39. 1:44infected, among other illnesses.
40. 1:47She's been taken to three different
41. 1:49hospitals trying to find help.
42. 1:54Doctors say this is more manageable than
43. 1:57the peak of the crisis.
44. 2:01>> I have never seen an outbreak this huge
45. 2:03in all my years of service. We
46. 2:05questioned whether there was any
47. 2:06weakness in our work or within our
48. 2:08entire health team.
49. 2:10If we get more space, another floor, or
50. 2:12more rooms with an oxygen supply, that
51. 2:14would be really good for us. It's
52. 2:16frustrating because this was a
53. 2:17controllable disease in our country, and
54. 2:20the number of people who are vaccinated
55. 2:22was very high.
56. 2:24>> Even if Bangladesh had made good
57. 2:26progress towards eliminating measles,
58. 2:28the sheer strain on this hospital shows
59. 2:31you how quickly that work can be undone.
60. 2:33And some families wanted vaccines for
61. 2:35their children. They just couldn't find
62. 2:37any.
63. 2:39Torn as she was put on life support.
64. 2:46Baby Maliha's lost bits of clothing.
65. 2:50>> [snorts]
66. 2:52>> Mahfuzur Rahman and his wife tried
67. 2:55vaccinating her at a local clinic a
68. 2:57month before.
69. 2:59They were told there were no vaccines.
70. 3:03She died
71. 3:04>> [snorts]
72. 3:04>> at just 11 months old.
73. 3:08>> Everything about her was wonderful.
74. 3:13She was so calm right from the very
75. 3:15beginning, from the moment she was born.
76. 3:19The doctor asked, "Why did you make such
77. 3:21a big mistake?"
78. 3:23We explained we couldn't get the vaccine
79. 3:25and that she had been sick.
80. 3:27He said, "Look,
81. 3:29it's all up to Allah."
82. 3:35>> Others more fortunate,
83. 3:3711-month-old Kainat blissfully asleep.
84. 3:42This jab may have saved her life,
85. 3:46even if she doesn't like it.
86. 3:52One of more than 18 million children
87. 3:54vaccinated since April.
88. 3:58UNICEF claims delayed vaccine orders
89. 4:00last year under the former interim
90. 4:01government had caused shortages. They
91. 4:04say this was their warning.
92. 4:06>> Whatever you are going to do, give
93. 4:07yourself time enough to make the changes
94. 4:10in the procurement mechanisms. We were
95. 4:11worried about possible gaps increasing.
96. 4:14We are speaking of
97. 4:15a very highly dense populated country in
98. 4:17which there were a huge movement of
99. 4:19population at the same time. So, it is
100. 4:20many factors.
101. 4:23>> We reached out to a senior health
102. 4:25official under the interim government.
103. 4:27He denied any vaccine shortage and said
104. 4:29while UNICEF had raised concerns, these
105. 4:32communications did not contain any
106. 4:33specific warning about a potential
107. 4:36measles outbreak.
108. 4:38Minister, thank you for your time.
109. 4:39Bangladesh's current health minister
110. 4:41took up his post just a month before the
111. 4:44outbreak when the government was elected
112. 4:46in February.
113. 4:48>> We are looking the stock. How much stock
114. 4:50we have? We got no stock sufficient
115. 4:52stock was not there to money go for
116. 4:54vaccination.
117. 4:55>> We spoke to one family who had to leave
118. 4:58a hospital because they said it was so
119. 4:59overcrowded. They saw some families
120. 5:01sleeping on the floor. Why was it that
121. 5:02the hospital system wasn't able to
122. 5:04>> During the first time, all of a sudden
123. 5:06the burden of this patient number of the
124. 5:08patients went up. We failed to
125. 5:09accommodate all the patients for
126. 5:11>> This was last week.
127. 5:13>> At the first first 15 days, but
128. 5:15subsequently we made so many
129. 5:17>> The family we spoke to was last week, I
130. 5:19mean. So, what is the challenge here?
131. 5:21>> At the moment at the moment the
132. 5:23challenge is actually we have made the
133. 5:25challenge already. There is no problem.
134. 5:27We have so many isolation centers. These
135. 5:28seats are vacant.
136. 5:30>> The
137. 5:31World Health Organization says there's
138. 5:32still a shortage in pediatric rooms,
139. 5:34critical care rooms, isolation rooms.
140. 5:36They say there are still thousands of
141. 5:38unfilled health care worker positions.
142. 5:40>> Yes, we have a large number of patients,
143. 5:43large number of population. The
144. 5:44accommodation facilities are
145. 5:46comparatively low, but we have managed
146. 5:47by this time.
147. 5:50>> We're on our way to another hospital in
148. 5:51Dhaka to see what the situation is
149. 5:53there.
150. 5:54The World Health Organization has this
151. 5:55saying, "Measles anywhere is a threat
152. 5:59everywhere." There have been measles
153. 6:02outbreaks in multiple countries around
154. 6:03the world.
155. 6:04The United Kingdom had eliminated the
156. 6:06disease altogether, but lost that status
157. 6:08in recent years. The United States has
158. 6:10seen a rise in measles cases.
159. 6:13Health officials here keep telling us
160. 6:15that it's clear measles vaccines work,
161. 6:18and that when they're missed, it's
162. 6:20children who pay the price.
163. 6:23Facing overcrowded hospitals near their
164. 6:25villages, the families we meet here have
165. 6:28traveled hours to reach the capital.
166. 6:32Iyan is only 4 months old.
167. 6:35His parents first noticed a rash over
168. 6:37his face and eyes, making it difficult
169. 6:40for him to open them.
170. 6:42So, they made a 12-hour journey here.
171. 6:45>> I surely can't launch it.
172. 6:48>> We came by ferry.
173. 6:50There were so many patients outside that
174. 6:52we couldn't get a bed.
175. 6:53Realizing how critical his condition
176. 6:55was, I absolutely needed to get him
177. 6:57admitted.
178. 6:58We came back, and they gave us a bed in
179. 7:00the afternoon.
180. 7:05>> Despite these scenes back in Mymensingh,
181. 7:08officials say cases are slowing.
182. 7:10Still, every day there are nearly 1,000
183. 7:14new cases.
184. 7:17Days after our visit,
185. 7:19we learned baby Arafat
186. 7:22has died.
187. 7:25A reminder that children are still dying
188. 7:30from a preventable disease.
189. 7:33As the day Mashiri, BBC News, Dhaka.