A measles outbreak in Bangladesh has left almost 400 dead, most of them children, and more than 56,000 suspected cases. Hospitals are collapsing and there is an alarming increase in children.

Humanitarian aid agencies with a presence in the country report that many of those infected are children who were too young to be vaccinated or who only received a partial vaccination, a CBS News medical correspondent reported.

To this, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns that the increase in measles cases abroad represents a direct risk to public health in the United States, where there has also been an increase in cases, many of them linked to sources of infection.

Vaccination rates have fallen, exposing many children to a highly contagious disease. In 2025, the number of measles cases in the US exceeded that of previous years, showing the ineffectiveness of immunization efforts.

Response measures in Bangladesh

The government of Bangladesh, together with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO), has launched an emergency vaccination campaign since early May, managing to vaccinate 18 million children in an effort to control the epidemic.

"Last year, the [Bangladesh] government attempted to modify the supply of vaccines, which caused delays in their distribution. In addition, in the last three years we have seen a worrying number of partially vaccinated or unvaccinated children," said Miguel Mateos Muñoz of UNICEF. “For the vaccine to be effective, two doses are needed, but we are seeing children who have only received one dose or who have not been vaccinated at all,” he warned.

Concern in the US

The spread of measles in Bangladesh and other countries could affect the technical elimination of the disease in the United States, as high infection rates abroad encourage transmission within the country.

The CDC considers measles to pose a direct health risk to Americans because it spreads easily across borders. The agency states that measles may pose a threat, especially to populations with a vaccination rate below 95%.

Of note, while measles vaccines have been available and widely administered in the US since the 1960s, the 95% threshold is no longer met uniformly across the country, CBS reports.

A study published by Johns Hopkins University even showed that vaccination rates decreased in 78% of the 2,066 US counties where data was collected.

Measles symptoms

Measles first produces symptoms similar to a bad cold (high fever, cough, runny nose, and red, watery eyes), and after a few days a red rash appears that begins on the face and spreads to the rest of the body.

Main symptoms

How it differs from other diseases

Measles is usually more intense and accompanied by marked respiratory and ocular symptoms, which helps distinguish it from other diseases with a rash.

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