Bangladesh is battling its worse measles outbreak in years, with more than 100 children dead amid a rise in unvaccinated infants.

The government, in partnership with the United Nations, has begun conducting an emergency measles-rubella vaccination drive for children across the country, after more than 900 cases were confirmed since March.

Measles is a highly contagious airborne disease causing fever, respiratory symptoms and a characteristic rash and can sometimes have severe or fatal complications, especially in young children.

While vast gains have been made in mass immunisation against measles, there has been a recent resurgence, attributed to falling vaccine rates, with more than 11m cases recorded globally in 2024. There was a fatal outbreak in the UK this year, which killed two people, and states across the US have also been grappling with a deadly spread, with more than 2,000 cases registered in 2025, the worst in three decades.

In Bangladesh, the rise in cases that began in March is the worst the south Asian country has experienced for years. While Bangladesh has a child immunisation programme for measles, the newly elected government said mismanagement by the previous regimes had led to programme gaps in vulnerable areas and a shortage of the vaccine stockpiles. According to the UN, 95% of the population has to be vaccinated in order to stop the disease from spreading.

This month’s emergency drive will focus on children aged six months to five years old in high-risk districts and will then be expanded out across the country.

One-third of those affected are below the age of nine months, which is when they would usually be eligible for a measles vaccine, which experts said showed a concerning gap in the programme.

“This resurgence highlights critical immunity gaps, particularly among zero-dose and under-vaccinated children, while infections among infants under nine months, who are not yet eligible for routine vaccination, are especially alarming,” said Rana Flowers, the representative for Unicef in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh’s newly appointed health minister, Sardar Mohammed Sakhawat Husain, told parliament on Monday that the political turmoil of Bangladesh over the past two years, after the toppling of prime minister Sheikh Hasina in an uprising in 2024, had led to disrupted vaccine procurement and a failure to conduct the usual measles vaccinations campaigns. The current government only came to power in elections in February.

Authorities are advising parents to go to hospitals whenever someone is suspected to have measles or even just has a high temperature, rather than relying on local pharmacies.

Since the launch of a massive immunisation campaign in 1979, Bangladesh has raised the coverage of fully immunised children from just 2% to 81.6%. However, experts have continued to warn that there are still stark discrepancies in measles vaccine coverage in the country of 170 million people.

In a statement, Unicef said the current measles surge was caused by multiple factors. “Bangladesh has a strong history of high immunisation coverage, but even small disruptions can lead to the gradual accumulation of immunity gaps over time,” said the organisation.