Three more people died with measles symptoms in Bangladesh in the 24 hours to 8am on Tuesday, taking the combined death toll from confirmed and suspected cases to 1,204 this year.

The Directorate General of Health Services classified all three new deaths as suspected measles cases. That takes suspected deaths to 1,100, while 104 people have died from laboratory-confirmed measles since the outbreak was first recorded on 15 March.

Another 1,217 people with measles symptoms sought hospital care during the day, of whom 1,098 were admitted. The cumulative number of suspected cases has reached 215,768, including 23,199 confirmed infections after 42 new laboratory results on Tuesday.

Hospitals have admitted 191,761 patients with suspected measles since mid-March, and 184,168 of them have recovered and gone home, according to the health directorate.

Dhaka Division carries the heaviest toll, with 494 deaths among people with measles symptoms. Sylhet follows with 193, then Chattogram with 102, Rajshahi 93, Mymensingh 85, Barishal 65, Khulna 51 and Rangpur 17.

The official count is not a full picture of the outbreak. The directorate says not every patient who seeks hospital care, and none of those who stay at home, is tested for measles, so the true number of infections cannot be established. The figures cover only people who reached a hospital.

Reuters reported last week, citing the World Health Organization, that Bangladesh is fighting the world's worst measles outbreak. The country recorded about 202,000 suspected cases and 22,000 laboratory-confirmed infections between mid-March and 9 October, more suspected cases than any other country this year. At that point 1,147 people had died, and 94 per cent of the reported deaths were in children under five.

Vaccination is at the centre of the crisis. Bangladesh had reached 96 per cent coverage for the first measles dose and 93 per cent for the second in 2024, but WHO and UNICEF estimated first-dose coverage fell to 90 per cent and second-dose coverage to 86 per cent in 2025, below the 95 per cent needed to stop outbreaks.

An emergency campaign in April and May reached almost 20 million children, and the government said it had covered every child aged six months to five years. Reuters reported that a routine health drive in June used a target list with four million more children than the measles campaign, even though it covered the same age group, exposing a gap in the rollout. The share of confirmed cases who had never been vaccinated was 82 per cent before the campaign and 85 per cent after it.

A fresh campaign launched at the end of September aims to reach 3.4 million children who were missed. Health experts also want the programme extended to children over five, who make up about a third of cases, Reuters reported. UNICEF and the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics estimate that as many as 40 per cent of children are not registered, and about a third of health worker posts are vacant.