Suspected measles cases kill nearly 1,000 as Bangladesh struggles to
contain outbreak
[September 09, 2026]
By JULHAS ALAM and AL EMRUN GARJON
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Eight-month-old Rojatun Jannat Ramisa is
struggling to breathe in a hospital in Bangladesh’s capital as her
parents sit helplessly beside her. She's one of thousands of children
sickened by a measles outbreak that's sweeping across the country and
has killed hundreds of children following setbacks to the country's
vaccine program.
Ramisa’s mother Ranu Akhter traveled hundreds of kilometers (miles)
after doctors in eastern Bangladesh referred her to a specialized child
hospital in Dhaka to seek treatment for the life-threatening condition.
“Fourteen days ago, when we were at the district hospital, there were
other children being treated alongside my daughter. I saw that those
children also had red rashes on their bodies, sores in their mouths and
fevers,” Akhter told The Associated Press at Dhaka Shishu Hospital.
“It made me realize how widespread the measles outbreak is,” she said.
Every day, the death toll is rising.
Bangladesh races to vaccinate children
Bangladesh has been racing to halt the outbreak's spread since March,
when more than 100 children died in less than a month. By Tuesday, the
death toll from suspected measles cases reached 999 since the start of
the year, according to the government’s Directorate General of Health
Services.
Since March, the country has recorded more than 166,000 suspected
measles cases, including 19,835 laboratory-confirmed infections,
according to the Ministry of Health.
The government launched an emergency vaccination drive in March together
with the World Health Organization, the U.N. children’s agency and the
Gavi vaccine alliance. It began with a focus on children from 6 months
to 5 years old and later expanded nationwide in phases.
Measles is a highly contagious airborne disease that causes fever,
respiratory symptoms and a characteristic rash. It can sometimes have
severe or fatal complications, especially in young children, according
to the WHO.
Two doses of a vaccine provide strong protection against measles, but
the WHO says 95% of the population has to be vaccinated in order to stop
the disease from spreading — which protects children like Ramisa who are
too young to be vaccinated as well as immunocompromised people.
The pandemic and political upheaval set back vaccinations
A few years ago, Bangladesh had measles largely under control, with a
vaccination program that was credited for decades for protecting
children and mothers from the deadly diseases of tuberculosis,
diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, poliomyelitis and measles. Between
2021 and 2025, the country recorded just 100 to 300 cases per year, down
from 2,410 cases in 2020.
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Patients receive treatment during a measles outbreak as family
members sit beside them in an overcrowded hospital in Dhaka,
Bangladesh, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
 But in the last few years,
disruptions to the vaccine program have left a growing number of
children unvaccinated.
First the pandemic interrupted routine vaccinations, and then in
2024 the government largely missed a vaccination campaign previously
carried out every four years.
Atiqul Islam, a neonatal and child specialist at Bangladesh Shishu
Hospital and Institute, said during the pandemic period in 2021 and
2022, many did not take their children to get vaccinated.
“So, if you look at children who are now four or five years old,
many of them missed their vaccinations. That created a gap. During
the previous interim government, vaccines were also unavailable at
many vaccination centers,” he said.
Rival politicians trade blame for vaccine shortfall
Bangladesh's current government, headed by Prime Minister Tarique
Rahman, said the failures in planning under ousted Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina and interim leader Muhammad Yunus left the country
with shortages of vaccines and far behind on coverage.
The 2024 measles vaccination campaign was disrupted during the
political upheaval that led to Hasina’s ouster. She left the country
in the face of a mass uprising in August 2024, and was followed by
Yunus, who led an interim administration that transferred power to
an elected government after an election in February.
From exile in India, Hasina blamed the Yunus-led government for the
disaster.
Doctor says things are getting better, but not fast enough
At Bangladesh Shishu Hospital, Islam said the situation has
improved, but not enough.
The doctor said his colleagues are struggling to treat infected
children who often arrive at the hospital with serious complications
like pneumonia, diarrhea and encephalitis, or brain swelling.
“For the past six months, we have been treating measles patients
continuously, and we are exhausted,” he said.
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