Bangladesh measles deaths pass 1,000 as a new campaign is set for 25 September

Seven more children died of suspected measles in Bangladesh in the 24 hours to 10 September 2026, taking the combined toll of suspected and confirmed measles-related deaths to 1,009, according to figures compiled from the Directorate General of Health Services. The Business Standard reported the daily increment. Health Minister Sardar Md. Sakhawat Husain told officials the country will resume a nationwide vaccination round on 25 September.

The outbreak began in late February and was recognised in mid-March. By 10 September the ministry's running totals stood near 168,745 suspected cases and 19,933 laboratory-confirmed infections. About 148,555 people had been hospitalised. Confirmed measles deaths were 100. The rest of the fatality count is coded as suspected measles on clinical grounds. Dhaka Division carries the heaviest load: more than 70,000 suspected cases and hundreds of deaths. Chattogram, Barishal, Sylhet and Rajshahi follow.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists Bangladesh as the largest measles outbreak in the world. Professor Mahmudur Rahman, former director of the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research in Dhaka, told Reuters the country has not seen this many child deaths from measles in a single year. Children under five accounted for about 82 percent of cases early in the wave. Infants too young for the first scheduled shot have spread the virus inside households.

Coverage slipped. WHO and UNICEF estimated that 86 percent of Bangladeshi children received a second measles dose last year, down from 93 percent in 2024. An emergency drive launched in April with WHO, UNICEF and Gavi reached about 18 million children. DGHS spokesman Zahid Raihan told AFP that about four million were missed. "We couldn't achieve herd immunity," he said. Teams are still looking for those children.

The minister told parliament that procurement changes after the 2024 political upheaval produced a vaccine shortage. A planned measles-rubella campaign was cancelled the following year. Hospitals are also treating a dengue surge. Beds, oxygen and isolation space are shared between the two diseases.

Measles is preventable with two doses of a cheap vaccine. Bangladesh had driven the disease down for two decades through the expanded programme on immunisation. The 1,009 figure is therefore a measure of a broken schedule, not of a new pathogen. The 25 September restart is the state's answer. Whether it closes the four-million gap will be visible in weekly DGHS bulletins through October, not in the announcement itself.

Eight-month-old Rojatun Jannat Ramisa was one of the children AP reporters found on a Dhaka ward this week, struggling to breathe while her parents sat by the bed. That image is now the public face of an outbreak that official tables still split between "confirmed" and "suspected." For the families on those wards the distinction is administrative.