In a column in Bangla Tribune, Shafiq R. Bhuiyan writes that the 2026 measles outbreak forces a rethink not only of immunisation but of public health communication. By the World Health Organization's count, more than 18,000 suspected measles cases and 164 suspected deaths were recorded in Bangladesh between 15 March and 14 April, most of them in children under five.

The most important fact, he says, is that about a third of those infected were under nine months old, while the first measles-rubella dose in the routine schedule is given at nine months. Saying 'they were not vaccinated' misses the full picture. He notes the WHO's position that emergency campaigns quickly protect children who were missed, but nothing replaces strong routine immunisation in the long run.

A child's protection against disease, he writes, begins not at the vaccination centre but with the mother's nutrition in pregnancy, breastfeeding soon after birth, exclusive breastfeeding for six months and then varied, age-appropriate food. Malnutrition can weaken the ability to fight infection.

He worries the country is slipping on these messages. The 2025 national household survey by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics and UNICEF found only 56.6 percent of babies under six months exclusively breastfed, down from 62.6 percent in 2019. Breastfeeding within an hour of birth fell from 46.6 to 30.4 percent, and only 30 percent of children aged six to 23 months get a minimum acceptable diet. The WHO and UNICEF raised concern about the trend in August.

He asks whether mothers hear these messages repeatedly before giving birth, and whether families know which vaccine is due when and where to go if a dose is missed. Public health, he argues, is a matter of communication as well as hospitals and vaccination centres; when information does not arrive in time, hospitals deal with the consequences later. With dengue too, he says, messages to change behaviour should go out regularly before mosquitoes multiply, not after.

The views are the writer's own. The column was published in Bangla Tribune.

Photo: Press Information Department / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Source: Bangla Tribune