Preventable Measles Deaths Raise Alarm in Bangladesh

Five-month-old Md Takrim’s parents exhausted every possible option in a desperate attempt to save their son. Their search for treatment began in Bhola, where he was first taken to the district সদর hospital before being moved to a private clinic. As his condition worsened, he was referred to Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital in Dhaka. Doctors soon determined that he required treatment in a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU), a facility unavailable at that hospital, forcing another transfer to a private hospital in the capital. After battling measles and its complications for nearly a month, Takrim died on 6 May.

His mother’s grief, holding the body of her infant son, reflects far more than the sorrow of a single family. It has come to symbolise a wider public health crisis unfolding across Bangladesh.

Between 15 March and 10 July, more than 750 children reportedly died after contracting measles within just 117 days. The scale of the tragedy has shocked public health specialists because measles is a disease that has long been recognised as preventable through safe and highly effective vaccination.

Health experts argue that the outbreak cannot be explained solely by the infectious nature of the virus. They point instead to gaps in routine immunisation, delays in preventive action and weaknesses in policy implementation. Although a nationwide Measles-Rubella (MR) vaccination campaign was conducted earlier this year, new infections and deaths continued for more than two months after the campaign concluded, suggesting that transmission had not been fully contained.

Bangladesh was once widely recognised for the success of its Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI). For many years, the country achieved remarkable progress in controlling measles through sustained vaccination campaigns.

According to the World Health Organization, the national measles campaign in 2006 successfully reached its target of vaccinating 34.2 million children aged between nine months and 10 years. A follow-up campaign in 2010 immunised another 18.1 million children, again achieving full target coverage. The nationwide Measles-Rubella campaign in 2014 reached 52.7 million children and exceeded its planned coverage. Vaccination rates remained close to, or at, 100 per cent in the years that followed.

That record changed dramatically in 2025. Government figures indicate that measles vaccine coverage fell sharply to just 59 per cent. During the same period, reports also emerged from different parts of the country describing shortages of vaccines. Public health analysts believe this decline created a large pool of susceptible children, allowing the virus to spread rapidly once transmission intensified this year.

Officials from UNICEF had reportedly warned about the possibility of such a situation well before the outbreak escalated. Stanley Gwavuya, the agency’s acting representative at the time, said that after the government decided to change its vaccine procurement process, UNICEF repeatedly cautioned that supply delays could increase the risk of vaccine shortages and disease outbreaks. According to his account, these concerns were raised through meetings, formal correspondence and discussions with government officials.

Later, UNICEF representative Rana Flowers stated that the Ministry of Health had received at least five formal letters and that nearly ten meetings had been held to discuss the potential disruption. UNICEF maintained that changes in procurement delayed vaccine deliveries, with the consequences becoming apparent as infections increased.

Although Bangladesh subsequently launched a national MR vaccination campaign, official figures suggest that millions of eligible children remained outside the programme.

A total of 18,477,616 children aged between six and 59 months received the MR vaccine. By comparison, more than 22.3 million children of the same age group participated in the national Vitamin A Plus campaign. The difference indicates that at least four million children who were reached through another nationwide child health initiative did not receive measles vaccination. Public health specialists warn that this immunity gap could continue to fuel transmission if not addressed through additional vaccination efforts.

Bangladesh has not witnessed such a severe measles situation in more than two decades. The country recorded its highest number of confirmed measles cases in 2005, when 25,934 infections were reported. The disease then declined steadily over subsequent years. As recently as 2025, only 132 confirmed cases were officially recorded.

Between 2020 and 2024, annual reported measles cases remained comparatively low:

Significant measles-related deaths were largely absent during those years, making the current outbreak particularly alarming.

Medical experts continue to stress that measles remains one of the world’s most contagious viral diseases, yet it is also among the most preventable through vaccination. The World Health Organization has consistently stated that the overwhelming majority of measles deaths can be prevented if sufficiently high immunisation coverage is maintained.

The present crisis has therefore prompted wider questions extending beyond healthcare alone. Observers are asking why vaccination coverage fell so sharply, what caused delays in vaccine procurement, whether warnings from international partners received adequate attention and why millions of children remained outside vaccination campaigns despite nationwide efforts.

Calls for accountability have also grown stronger. In Bangladesh, investigations are routinely launched following clusters of deaths within individual hospitals, often leading to administrative action and public scrutiny. Many health policy observers argue that when hundreds of children die from a preventable disease, an equally robust national review is warranted to determine whether systemic failures contributed to the tragedy and how similar disasters can be prevented.

The outbreak has reinforced a fundamental lesson for Bangladesh’s health system. Responding only after a crisis emerges is insufficient. Sustaining reliable vaccine supplies, maintaining consistently high immunisation coverage, acting promptly on scientific warnings and ensuring rapid policy implementation remain essential if future generations of children are to be protected from preventable diseases such as measles.