The UNICEF, World Health Organisation and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in a joint press release raised serious concerns that nearly half a million (5,00,000) children in the country miss full immunisation.
Marking the launch of the World Immunisation Week 2025, the three international organisations said that despite the remarkable progress of the country鈥檚 Expanded Programme on Immunisation, around 4,00,000 children are under-immunised, and 70,000 had received no vaccines at all.
The gap is wider in urban areas鈥攐nly 79 per cent fully vaccinated, with 2.4 per cent zero-dose and 9.8 per cent under-immunised鈥攃ompared with rural areas having 85 per cent coverage.
The organisations urged the Bangladesh government to strengthen and sustain the national immunisation programme by reaffirming its high-level commitment to ensure adequate human resources and budget, prioritise urban immunisation gaps, secure the vaccine supply chains, and scale up HPV vaccination, while expanding digital innovations for better monitoring and outreach.
鈥楽ince the launch of the EPI in 1979, Bangladesh has made remarkable progress鈥攔aising the coverage of fully immunised children from just 2 per cent to 81.6 per cent but the final mile remains the hardest. Reaching every child and woman, especially in hard-to-reach and urban poor areas, demands renewed urgency, strengthened efforts and increased investment,鈥� said Stanley Gwavuya, OIC Representative to UNICEF in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh鈥檚 EPI was now saving an estimated 94,000 lives and preventing five million child illnesses each year鈥攄elivering an impressive $25 return for every $1 invested, the release said.
However, challenges remain in reaching every child as these children often face compound vulnerabilities such as poverty, lack of education and poor access to healthcare.
Challenges to reach full immunisation, such as human resource constraints, immunisation gaps in urban slums, access barriers in hard-to-reach areas and the forthcoming transition from Gavi support meaning the government would have to fully finance its national immunisation programme with domestic resources including, vaccine procurement, policy support, cold chain equipment and vaccine implementation, all required urgent attention, the release added.
鈥楾o reach every child, we must continue investing in innovation, outreach, and stronger health systems鈥�, said Dr Ahmed Jamshed Mohamed, WHO representative to Bangladesh.
UNICEF supports planning, supply chain management, vaccine procurement, data systems and community engagement, while Gavi collaborates with partners like UNICEF and WHO to strengthen comprehensive routine immunisation in Bangladesh and combat diseases such as polio, measles, rubella and rotavirus.
