#Bangladesh is battling to contain the world’s worst #measles outbreak, a crisis exacerbated by weak data, inadequate outreach and #vaccination gaps that experts say offers a warning to other nations about the deadly risk of falling immunization rates. Bangladesh, whose routine vaccination program faltered in 2025, reported 202,000 suspected measles cases — 22,000 of them laboratory-confirmed — since the start of the outbreak in mid-March to Oct. 9, the World Health Organization said. That’s more suspected cases than any other country this year. So far, 1,147 people have died of the highly contagious disease, with 94% of reported deaths among children under five years old, the @WHO said. Bangladesh’s experience shows the challenge of containing an outbreak when vaccination coverage falls below 95%, a level the WHO says is needed to prevent outbreaks. Bangladesh almost achieved that in recent years but in 2025 coverage dropped.... Until recently, Bangladesh had been a vaccination success story. The WHO and the United Nations children’s agency @UNICEFBD estimated that in 2024 it achieved 96% coverage for the first vaccine dose and 93% for the second, which is given to capture the small percentage of children who don’t develop #immunity after one shot. But that same year, protests erupted that ended 15 years of rule by Prime Minister #SheikhHasina. In the ensuing political turmoil, health workers went on strike, vaccine orders were delayed and follow-up vaccinations that usually accompany routine programs were disrupted. In a report published in July this year, WHO and UNICEF estimated first-dose coverage in 2025 had fallen to 90%, while second-dose coverage was 86%, several percentage points below the 95% needed for herd immunity... Read more: japantimes.co.jp/news/2026/1… ... This a @Reuters investigstive report published in the @japantimes.