Bangladesh is battling a severe measles outbreak that has killed nearly 750 people, mostly children, and infected more than 120,000 since mid-March 2026, with the country still recording roughly 1,000 suspected cases and multiple deaths each day as of early July.
UNICEF has accused the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus of delaying vaccine orders in 2025, contributing to the crisis. The government and UNICEF launched an emergency vaccination campaign in April that inoculated over 18.4 million children, yet transmission persists. The World Health Organization had noted that Bangladesh was making significant progress toward measles elimination until March 2026, with vaccination rates exceeding 90 percent until recently.
Underlying vulnerabilities remain. Full vaccination coverage for children aged 12 to 23 months dropped from 83.9 percent in 2019 to 81.6 percent in 2023, while 43.6 percent of children under five suffer from anaemia, compounding the health risks.