WHO says Bangladesh's measles outbreak is world's worst, with 1,147 deaths

What the WHO data shows

Bangladesh reported 202,000 suspected measles cases, including 22,000 laboratory-confirmed infections, between the outbreak's start in mid-March and 9 October, the WHO said. At least 1,147 people died, and children under five accounted for 94% of reported deaths. The country had more suspected cases than any other country this year.

Measles usually kills two or three people in every 1,000 cases, the WHO says, but can be more deadly in poorer nations because of factors such as malnutrition.

Vaccination coverage fell after political turmoil

The WHO says 95% vaccination coverage is needed to prevent outbreaks. WHO and UNICEF estimated that Bangladesh reached 96% first-dose coverage and 93% second-dose coverage in 2024. In 2025, first-dose coverage fell to 90% and second-dose coverage to 86%, according to a WHO-UNICEF report published in July.

The drop followed political turmoil after protests ended Sheikh Hasina's 15-year rule in 2024. Health workers went on strike, vaccine orders were delayed and follow-up vaccinations were disrupted, Reuters reported.

"This is a real warning to every country," Mark Jit, a WHO vaccine adviser and professor at New York University's School of Global Public Health, told Reuters. Preventing an outbreak through vaccination was easier, cheaper and safer than responding to an emergency, he said.

Emergency campaign missed children

Bangladesh launched an emergency vaccination campaign in April and May, and nearly 20 million children received a dose. The government initially said the campaign had covered all children aged six months to five years. A later routine health intervention in June had a target list with four million more children in the same age group, exposing a gap in the campaign's reach, according to Reuters.

By August, the share of children with confirmed measles who had not been vaccinated rose from 82% before the campaign to 85% afterwards, meeting documents reviewed by Reuters showed. The campaign reached millions but failed to reach enough parents, Reuters reported.

Children who missed vaccination

In the Sylhet region, 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 Amin Mia said health workers came only after he buried his son, Reuters reported. His unvaccinated four-year-old sister survived.

In Chhatak, also in Sylhet, nine-month-old Labiba Akter died unvaccinated in June. She could have received a dose in April, when the emergency programme lowered the vaccination age to six months from nine. Her father Humayun Rashid said no health worker came to tell the family about vaccination.

Data gaps hampered response

UNICEF and the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics found that 40% of children went unregistered, while government data showed around a third of health worker posts are unfilled. A WHO-UNICEF report said preliminary figures sometimes showed numbers of inoculated people exceeded 100% of those targeted, indicating mistakes in counting doses or target numbers.

A Reuters review of WHO documents and interviews with more than a dozen scientists, health workers and officials found that faulty data left out millions of children and hampered the emergency response. The gaps matter in a country of 178 million people.

What happens next

In May, Health Minister Sardar Md. Sakhawat Husain said the emergency drive had brought cases in hotspots "almost to zero" and the outbreak was under control. Yet in September, Bangladesh reported a daily average of 1,198 new cases, the highest since May.

Ziauddin Hyder, special assistant on health affairs to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, told Reuters in September the government was doing everything it could to end the outbreak. The government did not respond to further questions sent in October.

Health experts urged the government to expand vaccination drives to children over five, the age group that accounts for a third of measles cases.