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Paper short abstract:

This paper will highlight the meanings and measures, given and adopted by different stakeholders, to deal with measles in Sindh province of Pakistan.

Paper long abstract:

The measles outbreak in 2012-13 in Pakistan witnessed various, however different, stakeholders onboard to deal with measles in terms of definitions, meanings and measures. It shows a contestation between the local standpoint and the biomedical perspectives. On the one hand, there are local people and local healers, who consider measles as a must-come-sacred-illness, draw its aetiology in Hindu mythology and perform certain rituals. On the other hand, the other stakeholders such as state and global 'authorities' (e.g., United Nation, World Health Organization, Gavi alliance) treat measles as an infectious disease caused by a virus. Controlling and eliminating its virus, therefore, is one among the indicators of development to meet the objective of reducing child morbidity and mortality, according to the United Nation's convention on the Rights of the Child. This side includes aid, guidelines, protocols, strategies, reports and a continuous gauging of the progress in statistical ways. The paper is based on my PhD fieldwork conducted in Sindh province in 2014-15, which would encapsulate the wrestling and encounters among these local, state, and global perspectives.