New Delhi: Over 250 people—most of them children—have died in a measles outbreak in Bangladesh which may have been caused by changes in vaccine procurement rules by the Muhammad Yunus’-led interim government in Dhaka in September 2025.
Bangladesh is currently facing a major outbreak of the disease, with 19,161 suspected cases of measles affecting 58 of 64 districts in the country between March and April 2026, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). At least 166 measles-related deaths have been identified during the aforementioned period.
The increase in the number of measles cases in the country, home to 175 million people, is due to a vaccine shortage that has developed over the last few months, partly due to the change in procurement rules initiated by Yunus’ interim government in September 2025, the American journal Science reported Thursday.
While WHO’s figures are from 15 March to 14 April, Science reports that the number of cases have since risen to around 32,000, with at least 250 deaths linked to the outbreak of measles across the country.
“The highest cumulative burden of suspected measles cases since 15 March 2026 has been reported in Dhaka (8,263 cases), Rajshahi (3,747 cases), Chattogram (2,514 cases), and Khulna (1,568 cases). In Dhaka, cases are concentrated in densely populated informal settlements, including Demra, Jatrabari, Kamrangirchar, Korail, Mirpur, and Tejgaon industrial and slum clusters,” the latest update released on 23 April by WHO reveals.
The WHO update adds: “Children aged under 5 years account for the majority of reported cases (79 per cent), including children aged under 2 years (66 per cent) and infants aged under 9 months (33 per cent). A total of 166 suspected deaths have been reported, mainly among unvaccinated children aged under 2 years.”
In September 2025, the then Yunus-led interim government halted procurement of measles vaccines via UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and moved to an open tender system, the American journal reported.
The move to change the procurement process of the measles vaccine was opposed by UNICEF, with its representative in Bangladesh Rana Flowers warning the interim government against the move. However, they went ahead with the change.
The changes led to delays in procuring the vaccines, eventually leading to a shortage that led to only around 59 per cent eligible children receiving the vaccine in 2025, going by data published and later removed from government websites, according to Science.
Sayedur Rahman, former special assistant to Yunus in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of Bangladesh Friday denied that any changes were made to the procurement of vaccination rules, rejecting any role of the interim government in the ongoing measles outbreak, in a statement to the Bangladeshi newspaper The Business Standard.
However, the former special assistant had in an earlier statement to Science defended the change in vaccine procurement rules as the interim government wanted the process to be shifted “to a regular, rule-based system going forward”. The procurement from UNICEF was under an emergency rule, Rahman had told Science.
Yunus came to power in August 2024, in the aftermath of the student-led protests that led to the ouster of Hasina. Hasina fled to India, where she remains. Bangladesh held its general elections earlier in February, which led to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s (BNP) victory and Tarique Rahman coming to power.
The outbreak is reported to have begun in Rohingya refugee camps near the Myanmar border before spreading quickly across Bangladesh. The newly elected government led by Tarique Rahman moved to reinstate the earlier procurement rules and began a mass vaccination campaign on 5 April.
Rahman, in the Bangladesh Parliament on 22 April acknowledged a shortage of vaccines, blaming both previous Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Yunus for the state of affairs. The Bangladeshi Prime Minister revealed that over two crore children have since been administered vaccines, after UNICEF urgently supplied Dhaka the relevant vaccines.
The outbreak also has implications for India, with WHO warning that cities in Bangladesh such as Jashore and Chapainawabganj (an identified hotspot) share “busy land crossings” and therefore “increasing the risk of introduction across the border”.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: India among 10 countries with most infants who missed 1st measles shot — report by WHO & US CDC