Bangladesh's measles vaccination programme had been a success story. But in 2025, amid political turmoil, it faltered. Its unvaccinated children are now paying the price.
Bangladesh is battling to contain the
world’s worst measles outbreak, a crisis exacerbated by weak data, inadequate outreach and vaccination gaps that experts say offers a warning to other nations about the deadly risk of falling immunisation rates.
Bangladesh, whose routine vaccination programme faltered in 2025, reported 202,000 suspected measles cases – 22,000 of them laboratory-confirmed – since the start of the outbreak in mid-March to October 9, the World Health Organization said. That’s more suspected cases than any other country this year.
So far, 1,147 people have died of the highly contagious disease, with 94% of reported deaths among children under five years old, the WHO said.
Bangladesh's experience shows the challenge of containing an outbreak when vaccination coverage falls below 95%, a level the WHO says is needed to prevent outbreaks. Bangladesh almost achieved that in recent years but in 2025 coverage dropped.
