New Delhi, Oct 21 (IANS) Bangladesh is battling the world’s worst measles outbreak this year due to failure in routine immunisation with over 2,02,000 suspected cases and 1,147 deaths reported since the outbreak began in mid‑March, a new report has said.
Citing the World Health Organization data, the report from The Japan Times said that Bangladesh saw “more suspected cases than any other country this year.”
WHO data showed 22,000 laboratory‑confirmed cases among the suspected total, and 94 per cent of reported deaths have been among children under five.
“Bangladesh’s experience shows the challenge of containing an outbreak when vaccination coverage falls below 95 per cent, a level the WHO says is needed to prevent outbreaks. Bangladesh almost achieved that in recent years but in 2025 coverage dropped,” the report said.
Experts said the crisis was worsened by gaps in vaccination coverage, weak data and inadequate outreach.
Numbers of inoculated individuals exceeded 100 per cent of those targeted, indicating mistakes in counting doses or target numbers. UNICEF and the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics found that 40 per cent of children went unregistered, while government data showed around a third of health worker posts are unfilled.
Data from WHO documents along with interviews with scientists, health workers and officials revealed that Bangladesh also suffered weak emergency response due to faulty data that left out millions of children.
The report mentioned a case in northeast Sylhet region, where a two-year-old Arman Hossain died unvaccinated in July, 24 hours after admission to hospital for treatment paid for by selling the family’s three-wheeled auto rickshaw. His father said health workers did not reach their remote village in time.
Bangladesh in September saw 1,198 new cases on average daily, marking the highest total since May.
WHO and UNICEF had estimated first-dose coverage in 2025 had fallen to 90 per cent, while second-dose coverage was 86 per cent, several percentage points below the 95 per cent needed for herd immunity.
Health experts also urged the government to expand vaccination drives to children over five years, the age group that accounts for a third of measles cases.
—IANS
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