DHAKA: A measles outbreak in Bangladesh has killed more than 500 children, government data showed on Saturday, marking the country’s deadliest surge in decades of the preventable disease.

Hospitals in the capital Dhaka have been overwhelmed with cases and set up dedicated wards to take patients, but are scrambling with a shortage of intensive care beds.

Deaths are still rising, with 13 children dying in the past 24 hours alone, taking the toll from the disaster to 512, according to health department figures since March 15.

The South Asian nation has rolled out a mass vaccination drive to combat the outbreak, and Unicef country chief Rana Flowers said this week that the campaign has now reached 18 million children. But the health department said the full impact of the vaccinations would take months to be felt.

Unicef said on Wednesday that gaps in immunisation worsened during and after the chaos of a 2024 uprising that toppled the country’s autocratic government, leaving large numbers of children unprotected. Measles is highly contagious, spreading through coughs and sneezes, and has no specific treatment once caught.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2026