Warned about vaccine shortage ‘at least 10 times’, says UNICEF
Dhaka: As the death toll due to measles touched 500, UNICEF on Wednesday claimed it had warned the interim government of Muhammad Yunus at least “10 times” about the impending outbreak following procedural delays in vaccine procurement.
The comments by UNICEF representative in Dhaka Rana Flowers came on a day government data showed that there were 481 deaths since March due to measles or its symptoms as of date even as the viral disease claimed six children in the past 24 hours while 1,270 others were diagnosed afresh with symptoms.
“We raised concerns over the vaccine shortage in at least 10 meetings with the government since 2024, alongside sending five to six formal letters,” UNICEF’s Flowers told a press conference on the measles issue here.
“From 2024, we were warning the government that the shortage of vaccines could lead to an outbreak,” she said.
The UN agency representative said both the health and foreign ministries were informed about the issue and added “the shortage was not caused by a lack of funds, but rather by delays in procurement processes that hindered the timely acquisition of vaccines.”
On Wednesday, a Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) spokesman said the government recorded 481 deaths so far caused by measles or its symptoms since the latest outbreak in March but admitted the actual figure could be higher as many cases could remain unreported. Cases were found earlier too but it was in March that the government announced there is a massive outbreak.
Six children died due to measles or measles symptoms in the past one day when 1,270 children were diagnosed afresh with symptoms of the disease, he said.
Things on the health front started changing since Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s government assumed office on February 17.
UNICEF blamed Yunus-led interim regime — which took charge after then prime minister’s government was toppled following a student-led violent protests in August 2024 – abandoned the earlier established institutionalised procedure.
“For God’s sake – don’t do this,” Flowers recalled telling the interim government’s health adviser Nurjahan Begum, who now prefers to remain behind public eyes after the elections earlier this year.
Health officials said over 60,000 children are suffering from or being treated for measles in Bangladesh as the outbreak spread to 58 out of 64 administrative districts. Health officials claimed that Bangladesh’s worsening measles epidemic is a result of the interim government’s decision to halt vaccine procurement through UNICEF and switch to an open tender system.
“But the vaccine supplies ran out as bureaucratic entanglement in adopting the new system eventually caused the crisis,” the officials claimed further.
The UNICEF representative said: “The prolonged disruption in routine immunisation left many children without vaccination coverage, increasing the risk of measles transmission and contributing to a large-scale outbreak.”
“A country of more than 175 million that has long taken pride in its high vaccination rates, the epidemic stems from a catastrophic breakdown in vaccine procurement following the country’s 2024 revolution,” said an April 2026 report in ‘Science’, a peer reviewed publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
