FROM PAGE 12

“It was very frustrating,” Unicef Representative to Bangladesh Rana Flowers told Science.org -- a scientific research, technology and medical news site of the eponymous journal.

“For God’s sake … don’t do this,” she recalled telling the interim government’s health adviser Nurjahan Begum, who did not respond to Science’s questions.

The tender process became caught in bureaucratic delays, causing vaccine supplies to run out and routine immunisation to stall. A supplemental MR campaign, postponed from 2024 to 2025 because of unrest, was eventually cancelled. By late March, government data showed only 59 percent of eligible children had received measles vaccines in 2025. The figures were later removed from the website, Science reported.

The outbreak began in January in Rohingya refugee camps near the Myanmar border before spreading rapidly across Bangladesh. It has now reached 58 of the country’s 64 districts and caused more than 21,000 hospitalisations. In an April 23 update, the World Health Organization warned of a considerable risk of spread to Myanmar and India.

Experts say vaccine gaps were compounded by malnutrition and a weak health system. Around 28 percent of Bangladeshi children under five are stunted, while missed vitamin A distribution campaigns since 2024 have further weakened immunity, said ASM Alamgir, former principal scientist at IEDCR.

Bangladesh reinstated vaccine procurement through Unicef in April and worked with WHO and Gavi to secure supplies, said Ziauddin Hyder, special assistant on health affairs to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman. Authorities launched an emergency vaccination drive on April 5 in high-risk areas, followed by a nationwide rollout on April 20. Vitamin A distribution is also set to resume.

However, Be-nazir Ahmed, former director of disease control at DGHS, warned the emergency campaign is unlikely to stop the epidemic quickly given the speed of transmission.

Many scientists cited by Science point to the interim government’s procurement decision. The matter has also drawn legal scrutiny, with Supreme Court lawyer Biplob Kumar Das filing a complaint with the Anti-Corruption Commission on April 12 over alleged corruption and vaccine-procurement failures under the interim government.

Prof Sayedur Rahman, a key health adviser to the interim government, defended the shift, saying the old system relied on an emergency clause and needed to be moved to a “regular, rule-based system going forward” to “avoid questions about transparency or lead to perceptions of bias”.

He did not answer follow-up questions on what went wrong but acknowledged the toll: “The loss of children to a fully preventable disease like measles is heartbreaking. It is a human tragedy, and my deepest condolences go to every family that has suffered.”

Meanwhile, following the publication of the report, Prof Sayedur made a Facebook post on Friday stating that his comments given to Science magazine had been published in fragmented form, despite his written caution that excerpts could create ambiguity and lead to misunderstandings.

He explained that since the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) is a routine programme, it was considered inappropriate to rely on emergency provisions every year. An informal assessment of the international vaccine market was therefore conducted, indicating preliminary feasibility for mobilising state funds.

He added that it was important for the government to build its own capacity and reduce dependence on external sources for a long‑running programme. So, the government explored procuring vaccines at competitive prices and strengthening its ability to source directly from the international market.

Given the critical importance of the matter, the interim government’s health ministry sent a recommendation in November 2025 to the Advisory Council Committee on Economic Affairs. The proposal sought procurement of vaccines worth about Tk 419 crore through Unicef using the Direct Procurement Method (DPM), which was approved at the committee’s scheduled meeting that month.

Prof Rahman ended the post by stressing that no vaccines under the EPI were procured using any different methods during the interim government tenure.