Bangladesh launches nationwide measles-rubella catch-up drive for 3.4 million children
Bangladesh has launched a month-long nationwide measles-rubella catch-up campaign targeting 3.4 million unvaccinated and missed children aged 6 to 59 months, amid the world's largest measles outbreak.
Bangladesh has launched a nationwide measles-rubella catch-up vaccination campaign targeting 3.4 million unvaccinated and missed children, amid what the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention describes as the world’s largest measles outbreak, Reuters reported.
The month-long campaign began on Saturday and aims to vaccinate children aged 6 months to 59 months who missed earlier immunisation efforts, after authorities lowered the minimum vaccination age from the usual nine months because of the outbreak.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Hossain inaugurated the campaign at the TNT ground in Mohakhali, Dhaka, saying 18,500,833 children had so far been vaccinated under the nationwide measles-rubella programme, the Dhaka Tribune reported. He said UNICEF had supplied an additional 4 million vaccine doses within 10 days, and that the campaign targets 1 million infants and 2.4 million children who previously missed vaccination.
Vaccination camps are operating in every union across the country, with doses administered on holidays and after sunset to accommodate working mothers. Around 1 million doses are expected to remain in stock after the campaign, the minister said.
Bangladesh has recorded 1,087 confirmed and suspected measles-related deaths, including 101 laboratory-confirmed fatalities. Since March 15, authorities have reported nearly 187,000 suspected cases and 21,099 confirmed infections, with more than 165,000 people hospitalised, according to health ministry data.
Health experts have attributed the crisis to disruptions in routine immunisation programmes in 2024 and 2025, when political turmoil, changes to vaccine procurement and the postponement or cancellation of vaccination campaigns left many children unprotected.
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