Bangladesh measles outbreak kills 528, hospitals overwhelm as vaccinations expand
Measles has killed 528 people in Bangladesh, mostly children, as hospitals in Dhaka fill and a nationwide vaccine push races to catch up.
Bangladesh’s measles outbreak has killed 528 people, mostly children, turning a vaccine-preventable disease into the country’s deadliest surge in decades. The toll has climbed as hospitals in Dhaka have filled, dedicated wards have been opened, and some patients have been turned away because beds and staff were already stretched thin.
The outbreak began in mid-March and was formally flagged to the World Health Organization on April 4, when Bangladesh reported a nationwide rise in cases across 58 of its 64 districts. By April 14, WHO said there were 19,161 suspected cases, 2,897 laboratory-confirmed cases and 166 measles-related deaths, with 79% of cases in children under 5. The disease spread fastest in places where immunization gaps had widened and where young children were least protected.
Those gaps did not appear overnight. WHO said recent declines in measles-rubella coverage were tied to a vaccine stockout in 2024 and 2025, and to the absence of regular nationwide supplementary campaigns since 2020. Bangladesh had long been seen as a global immunization success story, but the political upheaval that toppled the previous government in 2024 disrupted coverage. UNICEF said it had warned the government multiple times about procurement problems, while the switch in 2025 away from UNICEF vaccine procurement to an open tender system coincided with delays and shortages. The outbreak has hit especially hard among children too young to be fully vaccinated and among malnourished children, in a country where about 1 in 4 children under 5 are stunted and 1 in 10 suffer acute malnutrition.
UNICEF, WHO and Gavi launched an emergency measles-rubella campaign on April 5, initially targeting more than 1.2 million children ages 6 months to 5 years in 30 upazilas across 18 high-risk districts. The drive later expanded to city corporations and then nationwide from May 3. By May 20, UNICEF said 18 million children had been reached, but officials said the full effect would take months because vaccinations take about four months to become effective. By then, the outbreak had already killed 481 children; by Sunday, the death toll had reached 528. The unanswered question is why Bangladesh was allowed to reach this point before the response caught up.
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