DHAKA: A new legal petition has sought to hold Muhammad Yunus, head of Bangladesh’s previous administration, and members of his cabinet, accountable for the ongoing measles outbreak that has killed hundreds of children and overwhelmed the country’s health services.
Since the 1990s, Bangladesh’s vaccination campaigns have been able to contain the highly contagious, airborne disease but the mass immunization drive that should have taken place in 2024-25 was missed.
During that period, the country was ruled by a caretaker government led by Nobel laureate Yunus, who took control after student-led protests that ousted the previous administration. The government was in charge for 18 months, until general elections in late February.
Shortly after, hospitals in Dhaka started observing a surge in children infected with measles. The outbreak was officially recorded on March 15, and 620 children have since died with the disease’s symptoms and over 79,000 have been hospitalized.
Blaming the previous administration, Mujibur Rahman Iqbal, a member of parliament, took legal action on Monday, accusing the caretaker government of negligence in duty.
