Suspected measles outbreak kills nearly 100 children in Bangladesh 

Bangladesh says it suspects measles has killed at least 98 children in the past three weeks, official data show, with the capital, Dhaka, ramping up vaccination efforts in the worst affected areas.

Last week, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman directed two senior ministers to travel across the South Asian nation of 170 million people to assess the scale of the crisis to help coordinate a response.

Data from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare released on Sunday showed that the number of children aged six months to five years old with suspected measles symptoms soared to 6,476.

“Compared with past years, the number of affected children is higher, and the death toll is higher too,” Halimur Rashid, director at Communicable Disease Control, told the AFP news agency.

The largest number of suspected cases on record was in 2005 at 25,934, according to World Health Organization (WHO) data. That number had significantly declined in succeeding years until this year.

Rashid attributed the potential outbreak to “multifactorial causes, including a shortage of vaccines”.

The confirmed number of measles cases among children aged six months to five years stands at 826 with 16 deaths. Experts said in many cases, testing is either not done or patients die before testing can be carried out.

Measles is one of the world’s most contagious diseases, according to the WHO, and is transmitted when a person coughs or sneezes. While the disease can affect a person of any age, it is most common among children and can cause complications, including brain swelling and severe breathing problems.

The WHO estimated as many as 95,000 measles deaths occur globally every year, mostly among unvaccinated or undervaccinated children under the age of five, according to its latest statistics.

There is no specific treatment for measles once caught.

Bangladesh has made significant advancements in vaccinations to tackle infectious diseases, but a measles drive due in June 2024 was delayed by a deadly uprising that same year that toppled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Most Bangladeshi children receive a vaccine at nine months although many infected in the recent outbreak had been six months old, officials said.

“We committed to reducing the number to zero by December 2025 but failed to achieve the target due to poor vaccination programmes,” said Mahmudur Rahman, chief of the National Verification Committee of Measles and Rubella.

Dhaka has identified 30 of the most affected areas in the region and has started a vaccination programme. Health Minister Sardar Shakhawat Hossain Bakul said the vaccination drive will cover the “worst affected areas” before being expanded to other regions.

Tajul Islam A Bari, a former official at the Expanded Programme on Immunisation and a public health expert, told AFP that although funds had been allocated for vaccine purchases, authorities had failed to procure them.

“Now we see the result. The situation is scary,” Bari said.