RAWALPINDI - A 14-year-old child died of measles at children ward of Holy Family Hospital (HFH) on Thursday, proving the tall claims of City District Government Rawalpindi (CDGR) of vaccinating the affected areas as hollow.

According to HFH focal person, Dr Javaid Hayat the child, identified as Aziz-ur-Rehman, was brought from Koral, Islamabad, on Wednesday last as he was also suffering from severe pneumonia.  The doctor said all out efforts were carried out to save the child but he breathed his last at about 6:30am on Thursday and the dead body was handed over to the parents.
So far over 60 cases of measles were said to have been reported from different areas of Rawalpindi with 23 cases confirmed as majority of the cases detected in the areas of Pirwadhai, Ratta Amral, Hazara and Fauji Colony.
District Coordination Officer (DCO) Rawalpindi Saqib Zafar, while talking to media men, said that the CDGR had chalked out a plan to counter any possible outbreak of measles.  He said all the administrators of the towns with the officials of District Health Department would inject anti-measles vaccine to the children living in the areas from where the measles cases were being reported.
The DCO said that the children living in the 160 houses surrounding the house from where the measles case was reported as 40 houses from every four sides would be targeted.
He further said that all the administrators would supervise the anti-measles campaigns in their respective towns for the next seven days.