Bangladesh measles deaths surpass 1,000 as vaccination drive falls short of herd immunity
核心洞察
At least 1,002 children have died from measles (搜索) in Bangladesh, with 187,484 infections reported since the outbreak began in March, according to the Directorate General of Health Services.
The US CDC has called the outbreak the largest in the world, and WHO and UNICEF have linked it to gaps in the national immunization program during 2024 and 2025 political turmoil.
An emergency vaccination drive reached 18 million children, but roughly four million remained unvaccinated, preventing the country from achieving herd immunity.
At least 1,002 children have died from measles (搜索) in Bangladesh, according to the country's health officials, amid what the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has described as the largest measles outbreak in the world. On Wednesday, officials from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) also reported 187,484 measles infections since the outbreak began in March.
Measles (搜索) is a highly contagious airborne disease that causes fever, respiratory symptoms and a characteristic rash, and has no specific treatment once contracted. Severe cases can cause brain swelling and breathing problems. The disease can be prevented with two doses of vaccine, but infants too young to be vaccinated disproportionately contract and spread it. Children under the age of five accounted for more than 80 percent of cases early in the outbreak.
"To my knowledge, Bangladesh has never witnessed so many children dying from measles (搜索). Nor have we ever seen such a high number of patients in a single year. This is a truly terrible situation, and the saddest part is that the victims are children," said Professor Mahmudur Rahman, former director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research in Dhaka.
A vaccination program in retreat
The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF have linked the crisis to gaps in the nation's immunization program that emerged in 2024 and 2025, during the political turmoil that followed the ousting of then-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. On Monday, Bangladeshi Health Minister Sardar Husain told parliament that changes to procurement policy in that period created a vaccine shortage.
About 86% of children in Bangladesh received their recommended second dose of measles vaccine last year, according to an estimate by the WHO and UNICEF, down from 93% in 2024. The WHO states that 95% of the population must be vaccinated to stop the disease from spreading, a threshold that protects children too young to be vaccinated as well as immunocompromised people.
Atiqul Islam, a neonatal and child specialist at Bangladesh Shishu Hospital and Institute, said that during the pandemic period in 2021 and 2022, many parents did not take their children to get vaccinated. "So, if you look at children who are now 4 or 5 years old, many of them missed their vaccinations. That created a gap. During the previous interim government, vaccines were also unavailable at many vaccination centers," he said.
Emergency response falls short of herd immunity
A nationwide emergency vaccination drive, launched in April, vaccinated 18 million children. But official figures show roughly four million were never reached. "We couldn't achieve herd immunity," DGHS spokesman Zahid Raihan told the AFP news agency, adding that teams were still searching for children who had been missed. "Measles (搜索) cannot be eradicated and the aim was to reduce casualties. We will keep vaccinating our children," he said.
The government launched the emergency vaccination drive in March together with the WHO, the U.N. children's agency and the Gavi vaccine alliance. It began with a focus on children from 6 months to 5 years old and later expanded nationwide in phases.
Hospitals under dual strain
The outbreak is straining hospitals that are simultaneously handling a surge in dengue fever (搜索). More than 45,000 people have been admitted for dengue, and Tuesday was a record day for both admissions and deaths from the disease.
At Bangladesh Shishu Hospital, Islam said his colleagues are struggling to treat infected children who often arrive with serious complications such as pneumonia, diarrhea and encephalitis, or brain swelling. "For the past six months, we have been treating measles (搜索) patients continuously, and we are exhausted," he said.