Bangladesh Hit by World's Worst Measles Outbreak: 202,000 Suspected Cases and 1,147 Deaths, Most of Them Young Children
DHAKA — Bangladesh is experiencing the world's worst measles outbreak this year. According to World Health Organization figures cited in a Reuters investigation published October 17, the country had reported about 202,000 suspected cases from mid-March, when the outbreak began, through October 9 — the most suspected cases of any country in the world this year — including 22,000 laboratory-confirmed infections. The outbreak has killed 1,147 people, 94% of them children under five.
Reuters reviewed WHO documents and interviewed more than a dozen scientists, health workers and officials. It found that the country's routine immunization program faltered in 2025 and vaccination coverage fell below the 95% threshold the WHO says is needed to stop transmission, while child data used to plan vaccination missed millions of children, leaving the most vulnerable unreached.
"This is a real warning to every country," Mark Jit, a WHO vaccine adviser and professor at New York University, told Reuters, saying he was shocked by the scale of the outbreak. Ziauddin Hyder, special assistant on health to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, told Reuters in September that the government was doing everything it could; the government did not respond to further questions from Reuters in October.
Measles is one of the most contagious diseases known, spreading through the air and causing complications including pneumonia and brain inflammation, and is especially dangerous for malnourished young children. Bangladesh launched an emergency vaccination campaign in April in response to the outbreak. (GSM, via Reuters)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 儿童接种麻疹疫苗（资料图）｜A child receives a measles vaccination (file photo). Photo: CDC Global, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
