Death toll reaches 860 in measles

Six more children died with measles-like symptoms in the 24 hours until 8:00am on Thursday, taking Bangladesh’s combined total of confirmed and suspected measles-related deaths to 860 this year, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

The latest deaths were all classified as suspected measles fatalities, while laboratory-confirmed deaths remained unchanged.

The DGHS said all six children who died during the latest reporting period were recorded as suspected measles deaths.

With the latest update, the number of suspected measles deaths has increased to 764, while the number of laboratory-confirmed deaths remained at 96. The outbreak also continued to spread, with 733 new suspected measles cases reported in the past 24 hours.

This raised the cumulative number of suspected cases across the country to 133,638. During the same period, health authorities recorded 85 new laboratory-confirmed measles infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 16,740. DGHS data also showed that since March 15 this year, 115,879 people with suspected measles have been admitted to hospitals nationwide.

Of them, 111,587 patients have recovered and been discharged. Bangladesh has been experiencing a prolonged measles outbreak since March, with the DGHS issuing daily updates on suspected and laboratory-confirmed cases, deaths and hospitalisations as health authorities continue surveillance and response efforts.