Bangladesh has launched an emergency vaccination campaign after a fast-spreading measles outbreak is suspected of killing more than 100 people, mostly children, in what may be the country’s most lethal wave of the disease in recent history.

The campaign, whichh began on Sunday, comes amid more than 7,500 suspected measles cases since 15 March, according to health ministry data.

More than 900 of these cases have been confirmed – a sharp increase from 2025, when just 125 measles cases were recorded over the entire year, local media report.

While Bangladesh has long vaccinated children against the highly contagious disease, the recent outbreak has exposed gaps in its programme, raising concern.

“Vaccines are foundational to child survival,” Rana Flowers, the Unicef representative in Bangladesh, said in a statement on Sunday, adding that the current measles outbreak was “putting thousands of children, especially the youngest and most vulnerable, at serious risk.”

Why is there a spike in measles in Bangladesh?

In Bangladesh, a nation of 170 million people, routine measles vaccines are given to children as young as nine months old.

But Shahriar Sajjad, deputy director of the Health Department, told BBC Bangla that about one-third of those infected in the recent outbreak were under nine months old.

The infections of these young infants “who are not yet eligible for routine vaccination, are especially alarming”, said Flowers from Unicef.

On top of routine vaccinations, Bangladesh conducts special measles vaccination campaigns every four years.

But these campaigns haven’t gone according to plan.

There have been no special measles vaccination campaigns since 2020, first because of Covid then because of the “political situation”, Sajjad told BBC Bangla.

Bangladesh experienced political upheaval in 2024, when massive anti-government protests toppled its long-ruling leader Sheikh Hasina. An interim government took over after Hasina’s ousting, and only in February this year did the country elect a new government.

A measles vaccination campaign was supposed to be held in April this year, “but it did not happen”, Sajjad said.

A health official said procurement issues had led to a shortage of vaccines, including for measles, the Daily Star reported.

Many in Bangladesh have blamed the vaccine shortages on the former interim government, which oversaw a new vaccine procurement system.

But measles resurgences “are typically the result of these accumulated gaps rather than a single factor”, Unicef said in its statement.

“Bangladesh has a strong history of high immunisation coverage, but even small disruptions can lead to the gradual accumulation of immunity gaps over time.”

What is Bangladesh doing about it?

Along with international partners like Unicef and the World Health Organization (WHO), Bangladesh has launched an emergency vaccination campaign for measles and rubella , a milder disease with similar symptoms to measles.

This campaign, which started on Sunday, will be rolled out across 30 upazilas – sub-districts in Bangladesh – and targets more than 1.2 million children between six months and five years old.

The campaign will prioritise “children who have missed routine immunisation and are most vulnerable to severe illness and complications”, according to Unicef.

There will also be a particular focus on Dhaka, the densely populated capital, and Cox’s Bazar, home to crowded Rohingya refugee camps, Unicef said.

Besides the vaccination drive, health authorities are also publishing infographics that teach people how to identify and prevent measles.

What is measles?

Measles is a highly contagious airborne disease, which can lead to severe complication and death.

Common symptoms include:

High fever

Sore, red and watery eyes

Coughing

Sneezing

In 2024, an estimated 95,000 people were killed by measles around the world – most of them children under five years old, according to the WHO.

Measles can be prevented through vaccination – but according to the WHO, 95% of the population has to be vaccinated in order to stop the disease from spreading.

Are measles cases rising around the world?

Over the past two decades, the number of global measles cases and deaths resulting from the disease have fallen sharply.

There were 11 million cases of measles worldwide in 2024 – a significant decrease from 38 million in 2000, according to the WHO.

But the organisation has warned about a resurgence in parts of the world as vaccination rates fall. In 2024 and 2025, the world saw the highest number of measles outbreaks in more than 20 years, according to medical journal The Lancet.

Cases of measles have risen in some countries in Asia and Africa, as well as in Europe, the US and the UK, where there is growing scepticism against vaccines, especially after the pandemic.

In February, an outbreak of measles in some schools in north London prompted health authorities to remind parents to vaccinate their children. (BBC)

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