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Health Minister Sardar Md. Sakhawat Hossain
Health Minister Sardar Md. Sakhawat Hossain stated that the previous interim government triggered a catastrophic shortage of measles vaccines by abruptly ditching an established procurement framework in favor of an "open tender" system, ignoring repeated warnings from UNICEF and leaving countless children to pay with their lives.
Speaking before the National Parliament on Monday evening (September 7) during a sitting presided over by Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad, the minister addressed sharp criticisms and queries raised by Gopalganj-1 MP Selimuzzaman Molla regarding the management of the healthcare sector during the interim government's 19-month tenure.
Hossain remarked that despite substantial budgetary provisions, bureaucratic indecision and policy recklessness led to fatal outcomes. He noted that Bangladesh had traditionally procured WHO-approved measles vaccines directly through global supply chains with UNICEF and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI). However, in September 2025, the interim administration shifted to an open tendering model.
The minister revealed that the then-UNICEF Representative to Bangladesh, Rana Flowers, had cautioned that standard open tendering was inappropriate for lifesaving vaccines and risked collapsing the entire supply network. Despite UNICEF dispatching five to six formal letters and raising red flags across roughly ten urgent meetings, policymakers disregarded the alerts. Prolonged bureaucratic bottlenecks in approving documents and disbursing funds delayed shipments, even while sufficient stockpiles sat in international warehouses.
Compounding the crisis, political volatility following the 2024 transition pushed back regular immunization calendars, and the interim administration canceled a vital supplementary Measles-Rubella (MR) campaign in 2025. This caused routine coverage to plummet, precipitating severe and fatal measles outbreaks among both local children and inside Rohingya refugee camps.
The minister detailed health sector budgets across the preceding two fiscal periods, noting allocations of Tk 41,407 crore for FY 2024–25 and Tk 41,908 crore for FY 2025–26, divided across operational and development outlays across the Health Services Division and the Health Education and Family Welfare Division.
https://thedailyexpress.news/news/bangladesh/1f1aae0a-7808-6510-bacd-2203c8098d44