The High Court (HC) on Tuesday directed the government to submit a detailed report on the current status of storage, supply, availability and adequacy of measles and rabies vaccines across Bangladesh.
The court instructed the Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) to file the report through an affidavit within 30 days.
In response to a writ petition, the High Court also issued a rule asking authorities to explain why families of children who died from measles or measles-like symptoms should not be provided compensation.
It further sought clarification on why the health secretary should not be directed to form a 10-member expert committee to investigate the root causes of the outbreak and identify those responsible for the situation.
The respondents in the case include the secretaries of the Health Services Division and the Home Ministry, the Director General of DGHS, and the Director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), according to lawyers representing the petitioner, Mohammad Humaun Kabir Pallob and Khan Mohammad Shameem Aziz.
A bench of the High Court comprising Justice Rajik Al Jalil and Justice Debashish Roy Chowdhury passed the order following a public interest writ petition filed on 10 May by the Law and Life Foundation Trust.
The petition alleged that nearly 500 children have died since the measles outbreak began in March, while thousands more have been infected. It argued that the deaths were not unavoidable but resulted from policy failures in vaccine procurement, disruption of effective immunisation mechanisms, lack of response to international warnings and weaknesses in the healthcare system.
During the hearing, the petitioners were represented by Barristers Pallob and Aziz, while Attorney General Md Ruhul Quddus Kazal opposed the petition.
