The country had hoped to eliminate measles and rubella by 2020<\/a>. Instead, the pandemic disrupted routine childhood vaccinations, leaving pockets of children vulnerable to the virus. Now other countries where vaccination rates have fallen face a similar risk.<\/p>\n Vaccine hesitancy is probably part of the story here too. During the COVID pandemic, almost half of Bangladesh\u2019s population were wary of getting vaccinated<\/a>. That same wariness may well have carried over to the measles-rubella jab, with many parents simply refusing to let their children be vaccinated.<\/p>\n Measles has its own set of drivers, too. Poverty, education levels, and how often mothers attend antenatal check-ups<\/a> all shape whether children in a community end up vaccinated. Add it all up, and childhood vaccination coverage has been sliding for years \u2013 down to just 87%.<\/p>\n Between March 15 and September 6 2026, Bangladesh reported 92 suspected measles cases per 100,000 population and 11 confirmed measles cases per 100,000 population, based on an estimated national population of 178 million.<\/p>\n In March 2026, Bangladesh\u2019s vaccine advisory group approved an emergency measles-rubella vaccination campaign<\/a> for children aged six months to five years, with extra provisions for infants aged six to eight months.<\/p>\n Children normally get two doses of the measles vaccine. During this outbreak, however, the World Health Organization (WHO) advised giving one additional dose to all children in the target age group, regardless of whether they had been vaccinated before, to slow transmission and prevent severe illness. This built a rapid wall of immunity.<\/p>\n The vaccination campaign began in early April in 30 sub\u2011districts across 18 priority districts, then rolled out nationwide later in the month. It was the first national measles campaign since 2020. In the intervening years, routine vaccination services were badly disrupted by the pandemic and political instability, leaving many children without full protection.<\/p>\n Alongside vaccination, every child with suspected or confirmed measles was given vitamin A, a simple supportive treatment for active and suspected infections that lowers the risk of severe illness and death<\/a>. A nationwide vitamin A drive had already taken place in 2025, and the advisory teams built on that experience for this 2026 outbreak.<\/p>\n Bangladesh\u2019s Directorate General of Health Services activated district rapid response teams, and hospitals added isolation beds and tightened infection control measures. Paediatric wards in some hospitals quickly filled with children with high fever, rash and breathing difficulties<\/a>.<\/p>\n Operational teams began producing weekly situation reports, and health authorities issued new national and divisional guidelines covering vaccination, patient care and vaccine supply. This helped local authorities across all eight administrative divisions to coordinate their response as the outbreak spread.<\/p>\n Unicef, the WHO and Gavi (global vaccine alliance) worked with the government to back the response. Organisations such as Save the Children ran community awareness drives, including door-to-door visits and work with mothers\u2019 groups and schools, to encourage families to register their children and bring them for vaccination.<\/p>\n Even with this large\u2011scale national campaign, risks remain. If children miss their routine booster shots, or if large gatherings continue, or if rumours keep parents away from vaccination centres, another wave of infections is back knocking the door.<\/p>\n Measles is highly contagious<\/a> \u2013 one infected person can pass it on to dozens of others if the people around them aren\u2019t protected. It travels through the air in a cough or a sneeze, and can hang there, invisible, long after the person who sneezed has left the room. That\u2019s why vaccination can\u2019t be patchy \u2013 it has to be active, widespread, and reach every corner of a community to break the chain of infection.<\/p>\n The COVID pandemic introduced many people to the term \u201cherd immunity\u201d \u2013 the idea that once enough of a community is immune to a disease, it becomes hard for the infection to spread. For measles, that threshold is high: around 95% of a community needs to be vaccinated<\/a> to keep the disease under control.<\/p>\n Even a small dip in vaccination rates can leave pockets of unprotected children. A single imported case is then enough to spark an outbreak, and Bangladesh\u2019s recent experience shows how those small pockets can grow over several years. Similar patterns have played out in other countries where coverage has slipped.<\/p>\n Some countries have managed to eliminate measles and rubella altogether \u2013 a significant public health milestone. Cabo Verde, Mauritius and Seychelles were the first in sub-Saharan Africa to reach it<\/a>.<\/p>\n Zimbabwe faced a large measles outbreak in 2022. Intensive vaccination campaigns helped contain the virus, prevent hospitalisations and save lives<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2016, the Americas became the first WHO region to stop measles spreading continuously<\/a> on its own. That status didn\u2019t last: Venezuela recorded cases in 2018, followed by Brazil in 2019.<\/p>\nHerd immunity<\/h2>\n
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