He made these remarks as the chief guest at a workshop on 'Measles Spread and Genetic Surveillance' and a research grant distribution ceremony at the Bangladesh Children's Hospital and Institute in Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka, on Wednesday (August 19) morning.
The research findings were jointly published by the hospital's Department of Epidemiology and Research and icddr,b.
The State Minister, an international public health expert, said, "The lack of immunity created by delayed initiatives and policy negligence in the 2024 vaccination campaign is the reason for today's epidemic. Thousands of ventilators or ICU beds cannot stop this wave of deaths. Prevention and vaccination are the only solutions."
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Noting that there is no room for unrealistic assurances, he said that even if the vaccination rate is increased by 100 percent, it will take another two to three months to bring the outbreak fully under control. However, in the meantime, intensive efforts are being made to reduce child mortality through optimal medical care and field-level surveillance.
Informing about the plan to decentralise child healthcare, State Minister Dr. Muheet announced that five newly constructed full-fledged children's hospitals in five divisional and district cities will formally begin operations by next October. To strengthen grassroots-level healthcare, every 50-bed upazila health complex in the country is being upgraded to 150 beds. The State Minister said that at the upazila level, four core areas—paediatrics, medicine, surgery, and gynaecology—will be given the highest priority.
To address structural weaknesses in the healthcare system, Dr. M.A. Muheet said that 100,000 new health field workers will be recruited very soon to take primary healthcare and maternal-child health services to every doorstep. To tackle the crisis, the process of recruiting 5,000 new doctors and, in phases, the required nurses and medical technologists will be completed soon. Initiatives are also being taken to make the healthcare workforce structure balanced (pyramid-shaped) by upgrading the ratio of doctors, nurses, and technologists to international standards.
The State Minister noted that autonomous but government-supported management models like the Bangladesh Children's Hospital, BIRDEM, or Holy Family are highly effective and balanced for the healthcare sector. The lack of specialised services outside Dhaka forces patients from across the country to rush to the capital, which is a structural weakness of the national health system. Therefore, specialised medical services of the same quality as Dhaka's institutes will gradually be established in every divisional city.
The event was also addressed by Professor Dr. Prabhat Chandra Biswas, Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services; Dr. Md. Nurul Islam, Director (Hospitals); and Dr. Kazi Ahmed Zaki, Director of IEDCR. The programme was chaired by Professor Dr. A.K.M. Azizul Haque, Chairman of the Bangladesh Children's Hospital and Institute. The research findings and data were jointly presented by Professor Dr. Mirza Md. Ziaul Islam of the Bangladesh Children's Hospital and Institute and Dr. Mustafizur Rahman, Chief Scientist of the Virology Division at icddr,b.
The research found that the main cause of the 2026 measles outbreak was not a new strain of the virus but the spread of the highly infectious 'B3' strain, which is common worldwide, combined with gaps in vaccination and maternal antibody protection. Particularly, children between 6 and 9 months of age—who lose maternal immunity rapidly before the first scheduled measles vaccine dose and suffer from malnutrition—were found to be the most affected and at the highest risk of death.