Bangladesh Measles Crisis: Child Death Toll Hits 885 as Outbreak Continues to Spread
Bangladesh’s measles outbreak has claimed 885 lives since mid-March, including five children whose deaths were reported on Wednesday, highlighting the continuing threat the disease poses to children’s health and access to essential healthcare.
The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) said one of the five latest deaths was confirmed to have been caused by measles, while four others involved children who had symptoms consistent with the infection. Of the 885 measles-linked deaths recorded since mid-March, 99 have been laboratory-confirmed measles fatalities.
The Dhaka division has recorded the highest number of deaths, with 405 reported fatalities.
Health authorities also reported 941 new cases with measles-like symptoms and 84 laboratory-confirmed infections. This brings the number of symptomatic cases since mid-March to 136,320, alongside 17,115 confirmed infections.
The scale of the outbreak has placed considerable pressure on children and health facilities. According to the DGHS, 121,013 infected children have been admitted to hospitals since the outbreak began. While 116,827 have recovered and been discharged, thousands of children have still required hospital care.
The World Health Organization has identified Bangladesh as the country most affected by the current measles outbreak, noting that declining vaccination coverage has weakened the population’s previous protection against the disease.
In response, Bangladesh’s Health Ministry has vaccinated approximately 19.25 million children since April 5 through a special immunisation campaign, alongside routine vaccination programmes.
From a child protection perspective, the continuing outbreak underscores the importance of ensuring that children can access timely vaccination, diagnosis and treatment, particularly in communities where healthcare access or immunisation coverage remains limited.
