Bangladesh Reports 1,147 Measles Deaths and 202,000 Suspected Cases, WHO Says, as Routine Vaccination Coverage Fell Below 95%

Since the outbreak began in mid-March, Bangladesh has recorded 202,000 suspected measles cases, 22,000 of them laboratory-confirmed, through October 9, the World Health Organization said. That is more suspected cases than any other country has reported this year.

At least 1,147 people have died. Children under five account for 94% of the reported deaths, according to the WHO.

What the daily numbers show

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) put out its regular situation report on Friday, October 9. It counted 1,349 new cases in 24 hours: 1,268 suspected and 81 newly confirmed. Cumulative totals since March 15 stood at 202,893 suspected and 22,197 confirmed.

Three more deaths were recorded that day, one each in the Barishal, Chattogram and Sylhet divisions. The report did not say whether measles was confirmed as the cause.

That gap runs through the whole death toll. Of the 1,147 deaths, 104 were attributed to confirmed measles. The other 1,043 involved people who died with suspected measles symptoms, the DGHS said. Suspected and confirmed counts are different categories and should not be treated as interchangeable.

The WHO says measles typically kills two or three people per 1,000 cases, but the disease can be deadlier in poorer countries because of factors such as malnutrition.

How coverage slipped

WHO and UNICEF estimated Bangladesh reached 96% coverage for the first measles dose and 93% for the second in 2024. The WHO says 95% is needed to prevent outbreaks.

A WHO-UNICEF report published in July estimated 2025 coverage fell to 90% for the first dose and 86% for the second. Coverage declined amid the political turmoil that followed the protests ending 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.

Reuters' own review of WHO documents and interviews with more than a dozen scientists, health workers and officials found the emergency response was also hampered by data that left out millions of children, shortcomings in preparation and a failure to reach enough parents.

A nationwide emergency vaccination drive ran in April and May, with almost 20 million children receiving a dose. It lowered the eligible age to six months from nine. The government said it had covered every child aged six months to five years, but a routine health intervention in June had a target list with 4 million more children in the same age group.

The families behind the numbers

Two-year-old Arman Hossain died unvaccinated in July in the Sylhet region, 24 hours after admission to hospital. His family paid for treatment by selling their three-wheeled auto rickshaw. His father, Amin Mia, 26, said no health workers reached their remote village in time. "They came only after I buried my son," he said.

In Chhatak, also in Sylhet, nine-month-old Labiba Akter died unvaccinated in June. She was old enough for a shot under the April emergency programme, her father, carpenter Humayun Rashid, 30, told Reuters. "No health worker came to tell us," he said.

A 100-bed hospital in Sylhet, Shahid Shamsuddin Ahmed Hospital, has been overwhelmed by measles patients.

The government's position

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 total since May.

Ziauddin Hyder, special assistant on health affairs to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, told Reuters in September that the government was doing everything it could to end the outbreak. "There is a gap," he told Reuters on September 14, blaming vaccine hesitancy by parents or child illnesses for keeping children away. The government did not respond to further questions Reuters sent in October.

Mark Jit, a WHO vaccine adviser and professor at New York University's School of Global Public Health, framed the outbreak as a warning beyond Bangladesh. "This is a real warning to every country," he said. Preventing an outbreak is easier, cheaper and safer than responding to one, he said. "The response will stop the outbreak eventually, but in the meantime, many will have had measles, and some will have died."

The U.S. comparison

The U.S. numbers are far smaller. The CDC has recorded 4,410 cases so far in 2026. But the coverage trend points the same direction: CDC data show measles vaccination among U.S. kindergarteners fell from 95.2% in 2019-2020 to 92.4% in 2025-2026, below the WHO's 95% threshold. The CDC estimates about 280,000 kindergarteners are at risk because of those gaps.

Bangladesh was at 96% for the first dose in 2024; in 2025 its first-dose rate was 90%.

What comes next

Bangladesh has launched a new vaccination campaign aimed at 3.4 million children the earlier drives missed, according to the Straits Times' summary of the Reuters report. Whether it reaches remote villages like the ones in Sylhet, where families say vaccinators showed up too late, is the open question. The government has not answered Reuters' October questions.