Pakistan Child Measles Deaths Surge in 2012 Measles cases surged
in Pakistan in 2012, and hundreds of children died from the
disease, an international health body said Tuesday. In recent
days Pakistani officials said they launched an immunization
campaign to reach children in the worst-hit areas. But the
country still struggles with a beleaguered health care system,
unsanitary conditions in many regions and a lack of education
about how to prevent disease. All those factors make it
difficult to combat infectious diseases such as measles and
polio. Also, many oppose vaccinations, suspecting they are meant
to harm their people. A spokeswoman for the World Health
Organization, Maryam Yunus, said that 306 children died in
Pakistan of measles in 2012, compared to 64 the year before. She
said the jump was most pronounced in southern Sindh province,
where measles killed 210 children in 2012. She said 28 children
died there in 2011. The World Health Organization did not give a
reason for the increase in deaths, but a