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Tuesday | September 22, 2026 | Dhaka

Measles death toll rises to 1,063

 Staff Reporter
 Published: 12:01 AM, 22 September 2026

Six more children died with measles or measles-like symptoms in the 24 hours until 8:00am on Monday, taking Bangladesh’s combined confirmed and suspected measles-related death toll to 1,063 this year.

The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) classified all six deaths as suspected measles fatalities, taking the number of suspected deaths to 962. Confirmed measles deaths remained unchanged at 101.

The latest DGHS figures also showed a continued rise in suspected measles infections, with 1,221 new suspected cases reported during the 24-hour period. The number of suspected cases recorded nationwide has now reached 181,035.

At the same time, 84 new laboratory-confirmed measles infections were detected, raising the cumulative number of confirmed cases to 20,646.

Since March 15, a total of 159,804 patients with suspected measles have been hospitalised across the country, according to DGHS data.

Of them, 153,448 have recovered.
The government is preparing another nationwide measles vaccination campaign, with 34 lakh children aged between six months and 59 months targeted for vaccination.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Husain announced the campaign at a press conference at the Secretariat on Sunday.

The campaign will begin on September 26 and continue until October 31.
The minister said the government had previously conducted a nationwide measles vaccination campaign from April until May 20 with support from UNICEF, Gavi and the World Health Organisation.

That campaign achieved 102-104 per cent of its target of vaccinating 1.8 crore children.

A subsequent vitamin A campaign covering 2.23 crore children found that around 43 lakh children had missed the previous measles vaccination campaign, Sakhawat Husain said.

Another 10 lakh children have become eligible for vaccination after reaching six months of age during the past three months.

The two groups together have brought the target for the new nationwide campaign to 34 lakh children.
The latest vaccination drive comes as the number of suspected measles cases and related deaths continues to increase across the country.