Bangladesh’s Vaccination Failures Leave Children to Pay

“They came only after I buried my son,” Amin Mia said of the health workers who reached his remote village after his two-year-old son, Arman Hossain, died unvaccinated in July. Bangladesh has reported 202,000 suspected measles cases since mid-March, including 22,000 laboratory-confirmed cases, in what the World Health Organisation called the world’s worst outbreak.

The reported death toll stands at 1,147. Children under five make up 94 per cent of those deaths. The state’s vaccination programme faltered, outreach missed families, and weak data hampered emergency preparations. Children who never got a dose and families forced to sell their belongings to pay for care are bearing the cost.

The gaps behind the outbreak

The World Health Organisation says vaccination coverage must reach 95 per cent to prevent measles outbreaks. Bangladesh came close to that level in recent years, but coverage fell in 2025. A WHO and UNICEF report published in July put first-dose coverage at 90 per cent and second-dose coverage at 86 per cent that year, several percentage points below the level needed for herd immunity.

The report also questioned official vaccination data for measles and other diseases from 2023 to 2025. Preliminary figures sometimes counted more vaccinated people than the number targeted, suggesting errors in dose counts or target figures. Reuters reviewed WHO documents and interviewed more than a dozen scientists, health workers and officials. That review found emergency preparations had suffered because data left out millions of children, preparations fell short and officials failed to reach enough parents.

These aren’t abstract bookkeeping problems. In Chhatak, Sylhet, nine-month-old Labiba Akter died unvaccinated in June. Her father, Humayun Rashid, said she could have received a dose in April, when an emergency programme lowered the vaccination age from nine months to six. “No health worker came to tell us,” he said.

Arman’s family sold their three-wheeled auto rickshaw to pay for his treatment. His unvaccinated four-year-old sister survived. His father, Amin Mia, 26, said workers didn’t reach their remote village in time to offer vaccinations. On the edge of the system, a measure announced on paper offers no protection if nobody arrives to tell families it exists.

Families face the consequences

In Sylhet, one of the worst-hit regions in a nation of 178 million people, children have filled hospital wards. Masum, 8, received treatment in the overcrowded measles isolation ward at Shahid Shamsuddin Ahmed Hospital on September 12, 2026. Mohammad Nasir Ali, 40, was photographed beside his seven-year-old son, Adil Ahmed, admitted to the same ward. Other parents, including Bilkis, cared for children receiving treatment there.

In Narayanganj, Urmi, 19, mourned as her 11-month-old son, Mohammad, deteriorated in a hospital neonatal intensive care unit on May 11, 2026. The WHO says measles usually kills two or three people in every 1,000 cases. In poorer nations, factors including malnutrition can make it deadlier.

The outbreak shows what happens when vaccination coverage falls below the threshold the WHO says is needed to prevent outbreaks. Mark Jit, a WHO vaccine adviser and professor at the School of Global Public Health at New York University, called it “a real warning to every country.” Prevention through vaccination, he said, was easier, cheaper and safer than responding to an emergency. “The response will stop the outbreak eventually, but in the meantime, many will have had measles, and some will have died.”

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. The government didn’t respond to further questions sent in October. Missed visits and disputed figures remain alongside that assurance, as families bear the cost.