Bangladesh is battling to contain the world's worst measles outbreak, a crisis driven by weak data, inadequate outreach and vaccination gaps that experts say offers a warning to other nations about the deadly risk of falling immunisation rates.
Bangladesh, whose routine vaccination programme faltered in 2025, reported 202,000 suspected measles cases, 22,000 of them laboratory-confirmed, from the start of the outbreak in mid-March to October 9, the World Health Organization said. That is more suspected cases than any other country this year.
So far, 1,147 people have died of the highly contagious disease, with 94% of reported deaths among children under five years old, the WHO said.
Bangladesh's experience shows the challenge of containing an outbreak when vaccination coverage falls below 95%, the level the WHO says is needed to prevent outbreaks. Bangladesh almost achieved that level in recent years, but in 2025 coverage dropped.
A review of WHO documents, alongside interviews with more than a dozen scientists, health workers and officials, found Bangladesh was also hampered in its emergency response by data that left out millions of children, shortcomings in preparation and a failure to reach enough parents.
"This is a real warning to every country," said Mark Jit, a WHO vaccine adviser and professor at the School of Global Public Health at New York University. Preventing an outbreak through vaccinations was easier, cheaper and safer than responding to an emergency, he said.
Bangladesh's health directorate has since reported the toll rising further, with five more children dying in the 24 hours to Friday morning, taking the death toll in 2026 to 1,186, according to local media citing the Directorate General of Health Services. The directorate recorded 1,164 new suspected cases in the same period, bringing the overall tally of suspected cases to 211,040.