![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/P05-260906-308.jpg\")
<\/p>\n COMPLICATION:
\n Many of the children who arrive at the hospital are already critically ill and malnourished, which further weakens their ability to fight the virus, doctors said <\/p>\n
Bangladesh\u2019s deadliest measles outbreak in decades is nearing the grim milestone of 1,000 child deaths, as a devastating epidemic sweeps through the country and crowded hospital wards fill with struggling babies.<\/p>\n
Cries of sick children and the hiss of oxygen machines fill the air at Dhaka\u2019s Shishu Hospital, where Rima Akter keeps a vigil beside her nine-month-old son.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust an hour ago, a child died, and they wheeled him out in front of us,\u201d Akter said on Thursday. \u201cWe saw two children die today.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Photo: AFP<\/p>\n
Her son is one of scores filling the hospital\u2019s measles wards.<\/p>\n
At least 986 children have died since March, while suspected and confirmed cases have surged past 180,000, Bangladeshi Ministry of Health and Family Welfare figures showed.<\/p>\n
Measles is highly contagious, spreading through coughs and sneezes, and has no specific treatment once caught.<\/p>\n
Complications can include brain swelling and severe breathing problems. Although anyone can catch the disease, young children are particularly vulnerable.<\/p>\n
More than 1,000 suspected cases are reported daily.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been running to and from multiple hospitals since July to get my son the proper treatment,\u201d Sanjana Islam Modina said, cradling her six-month-old son Ayan, who has an oxygen tube fixed to his nose.<\/p>\n
He was first admitted to hospital with pneumonia in July, then contracted measles before finally securing a bed at the capital\u2019s specialized children\u2019s hospital last month.<\/p>\n
The hospital has 101 children admitted with suspected or confirmed measles.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis lungs were already very weak from the pneumonia, then with measles his breathing was affected more,\u201d Modina said. \u201cHe\u2019s been on oxygen constantly for the last five days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most cases during the outbreak have been children aged between six months and five years.<\/p>\n
Doctors said many of the children arriving at the hospital are already critically ill, with malnutrition further weakening their ability to fight the virus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe doctors gave my son a special milk specifically designed for malnourished children,\u201d Modina said.<\/p>\n
The outbreak has exposed gaps in Bangladesh\u2019s efforts to protect its youngest.<\/p>\n
SM Ziauddin Hyder, special assistant to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman for health, called the outbreak \u201cdevastating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bangladesh had made major advances in vaccination against infectious diseases, but a measles drive planned for 2024 was delayed by the uprising that toppled former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina.<\/p>\n
Workers\u2019 strikes and political instability delayed a 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n
The country has since rolled out a mass vaccination drive to combat the outbreak, but the number of cases continues to climb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COMPLICATION: Many of the children who arrive at the hospital are already critically ill and malnourished, which further…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[134,111,139,69,13923,13922],"class_list":["post-591207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-the-taipei-times","tag-13922"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}