Bangladesh says suspected measles outbreak has killed about 100 children

Dhaka: Bangladesh has said a suspected measles outbreak killed at least 98 children over the past three weeks, according to official data released on Sunday, as authorities stepped up vaccination efforts in the areas hit hardest by the surge.

The health ministry’s latest figures showed that the number of children aged between six months and five years old with suspected measles symptoms had climbed to 6,476. Officials said the government was moving to contain the outbreak by expanding immunisation in the most affected locations.

Last week, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman directed two senior ministers to travel across the country to assess the scale of the crisis and help coordinate the response in the South Asian nation of 170 million people.

Halimur Rashid, director at the Communicable Disease Control, said the current situation was worse than in previous years in terms of both infections and deaths among children with suspected measles.

Compared with past years, the number of affected children is higher, and the death toll is higher too,

Rashid told AFP, referring to the number of suspected cases. He said the possible outbreak was linked to “multifactorial causes, including a shortage of vaccines”.

According to World Health Organisation data cited in the report, the highest number of suspected measles cases previously recorded in Bangladesh was 25,934 in 2005. That figure had fallen significantly in the years that followed until the current rise this year.

Officials said confirmed measles cases in the same age group stood at 826, with 16 deaths. Experts said many children are either not tested or die before testing can be carried out, which may explain the gap between suspected and confirmed cases.

Vaccination drive expanded

Bangladesh has identified 30 of the worst-affected areas and has begun a vaccination campaign there. Health Minister Sardar Shakhawat Hossain Bakul said the drive would first cover the “worst affected areas” before being extended to other parts of the country.

Bangladesh has made major progress in vaccination against infectious diseases, but a measles campaign scheduled for June 2024 was delayed by a deadly uprising in the same year that toppled the autocratic government of Sheikh Hasina.

Officials added that most children in Bangladesh receive a measles vaccine at nine months of age, although many of those infected in the recent outbreak were six months old.

Mahmudur Rahman, chief of the National Verification Committee of Measles and Rubella, said the country had failed to meet its elimination goal.

We committed to reducing the number to zero by December 2025 but failed to achieve the target due to poor vaccination programmes, he said.

Tajul Islam A. Bari, a former official at the Expanded Programme on Immunisation and a public health expert, said money had been set aside for vaccine purchases but the authorities did not buy them.

‘Now we see the result — the situation is scary’,Bari added.

Global concern over measles

The World Health Organisation describes measles as one of the most contagious diseases in the world. It spreads when an infected person coughs or sneezes. While people of any age can contract the disease, it is most common among children and can lead to serious complications, including brain swelling and severe breathing problems.

According to the WHO’s latest statistics, measles causes as many as 95,000 deaths globally each year, mostly among unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children under five. There is no specific treatment for measles once a person has contracted it.