🧒 Bangladesh has reduced child mortality from 21% to 3%

• Child mortality in Bangladesh has dropped from 211 per 1,000 births in 1979 to 31 per 1,000 today.
• Vaccination coverage has increased from 2 percent to 98 percent for basic vaccines.
• The country now finances 39 percent of its vaccination program and will become completely self-sufficient by 2030.

Vaccination coverage increased dramatically

Bangladesh has undergone a dramatic improvement in child health since the country launched its national vaccination program in 1979. At that time, 211 out of every 1,000 children died before turning five years old. Today, this figure has dropped to 31 per 1,000 births.

The country was extremely poor when the program started. According to the World Bank's 1979 report, Bangladesh had a GNP per capita of US$ 901, making it one of the world's poorest countries. Life expectancy was only 47 years and disease rates were high.

Vaccination coverage at the end of Bangladesh's first decade stood at around 2 percent. Around 500,000 children under five years old died each year. About one-third of these deaths were caused by the six diseases that the vaccination program then targeted: measles, tuberculosis, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis.

Today, Bangladesh has achieved 98 percent coverage with the third dose of the basic diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccine. Measles coverage stands at 93 percent, and the country has been officially polio-free since 2014.

Program expands with new vaccines

The vaccination program continues to expand. In October 2023, Bangladesh launched the HPV vaccine to protect girls from cervical cancer. According to EPI officials, they are now preparing to introduce the typhoid conjugate vaccine into the routine schedule with support from Gavi.

Increased economic independence

Bangladesh's economy has grown robustly, and the country will "graduate" from the UN's list of least developed countries in 2026.

The country now finances 39 percent of its vaccination program and will become completely self-sufficient by 2030.

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