Measles had become more potent as herd immunity had declined in Bangladesh amid low vaccination coverage, said health specialists as three more children died of the disease and suspected cases on Wednesday.
Globally, measles sees a rise in summer. But low vaccine coverage had caused the massive outbreak in Bangladesh, they said.
Many children had been left out in the previous vaccination campaigns, they also said.
Hospitals are now overwhelmed with patients as infections continue to spread.
Experts also said disruptions in vaccination campaigns and coverage gaps had contributed to the situation.
The vaccination campaign was missed in 2024 amid the political turmoil.
Virologist Dr Mushtuq Husain told The Financial Express the virus had not changed much; rather the low vaccination coverage had made it more powerful.
Health specialists said acknowledging the real situation and declaring an emergency (epidemic) would help secure national and global attention, mobilise financial aid, and ensure emergency allocations.
Dr Mushtuq, a former adviser at the Institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), said as the situation had turned into an epidemic, the government could at least declare an emergency and arrange sufficient health facilities, including isolation units and intensive care unit (ICU) beds.
He said there were some misconceptions about declaring it as an epidemic as people might panic.
Besides, the government might think people would blame them for the situation, he said.
Director of Bangladesh Shishu Hospital Prof Dr Mahbubul Haque told The Financial Express the virus had not gone through mutation; rather a huge segment of the population remained out of the vaccination coverage, causing the situation to exacerbate.
For infectious diseases like measles, the vaccination coverage should be above 96 per cent. However, over the past few years, vaccination campaigns had not reached this level, he added.
According to him, about three million children are born every year, and if about 15 per cent of them miss the two doses, an outbreak of the current scale may occur and herd immunity may decline.
He, however, believes infections will reduce once vaccination gains momentum.
Although this is typically the season for measles in Bangladesh, the situation has turned worse this year mainly due to low vaccination coverage, he observes.
The Health and Family Welfare Ministry has taken up a special vaccination campaign in light of the situation, which will start next week nationwide.
It has already launched a special campaign across 30 upazilas under four city corporations, including two in Dhaka, to vaccinate 1.2 million children aged six to 59 months.
With Wednesday's death figures, the number of deaths from confirmed cases rose to 32 since March 15, while that from suspected ones went up to 166, said the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in its daily bulletin.
Meanwhile, 76 new confirmed cases and 1,032 additional cases of measles-like symptoms were reported in the past 24 hours.
The total number of confirmed cases rose to 2,973, and suspected ones to 19,161.
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