Bangladesh said it suspected measles killed at least 98 children in the past three weeks, official data showed on Sunday, with Dhaka ramping up vaccination efforts in the worst-affected areas.

Last week, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman directed two senior ministers to travel across the South Asian nation of 170 million people in an effort to assess the scale of the crisis to help coordinate a response.

Health ministry data released on Sunday showed that children aged between six months and five years old with suspected measles symptoms soared to 6,476.

“Compared with past years, the number of affected children is higher, and the death toll is higher too,” Halimur Rashid, director at the Communicable Disease Control, told AFP, referring to the number in suspected cases.

The largest number of suspected cases on record was in 2005 at 25,934, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) data, though that number had significantly declined until this year.

Rashid attributed the potential outbreak to “multifactorial causes, including a shortage of vaccines”.

Confirmed numbers of measles cases among the demographic stand at 826, with only 16 deaths, with experts saying in many cases, testing is either not done or patients die before testing can be done.

Measles is one of the world’s most contagious diseases, according to the WHO, and is transmitted when a person coughs or sneezes.

While the disease can affect a person of any age, it is most common among children and can cause complications, including brain swelling and severe breathing problems.

Bangladesh has made significant advancements in vaccinations to tackle infectious diseases, but a measles drive due in June 2024 was delayed by a deadly uprising that same year that toppled the autocratic government of Sheikh Hasina.

Most Bangladeshi children receive a vaccine at nine months, although many infected in the recent outbreak had been six months old, officials added.

Mahmudur Rahman, chief of the National Verification Committee of Measles and Rubella, said that “we committed to reducing the number to zero by December 2025 but failed to achieve the target due to poor vaccination programmes”.

Dhaka has identified 30 of the most affected areas in the region and has started a vaccination programme.

Health Minister Sardar Shakhawat Hossain Bakul said the vaccination drive will cover the “worst affected areas” before being expanded to other regions.

Tajul Islam A. Bari, a former official at the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) and a public health expert, told AFP that although funds had been allocated for vaccine purchases, authorities had failed to procure them.

“Now we see the result — the situation is scary,” Bari added.

The WHO estimates as many as 95,000 measles deaths globally every year, mostly among unvaccinated or under-vaccinated children under the age of five, according to its latest statistics.

There is no specific treatment for measles once caught.