‘We expect visible changes in health sector within one to one-and-a-half years’

In its first six months of governance, the BNP-led government has prioritized the health sector, allocating its largest-ever budget to the Ministry of Health. State Minister for Health MA Muhit told The Daily Star (TDS) that the ministry faced numerous challenges during this period, including poor conditions at upazila health complexes, shortages of medical personnel, and difficulties in accessing public hospitals.

To address these issues, the ministry conducted a comprehensive assessment of the health sector and identified major problems, such as the need to upgrade upazila health complexes into 151-bed hospitals and strengthen specialized services at district hospitals.

The health ministry also launched a large-scale vaccination campaign to tackle the measles outbreak that occurred shortly after the government took office. Despite initial setbacks due to a poorly set target and vaccine supply chain disruptions, the campaign managed to vaccinate over 1.8 crore children nationwide, making it one of the world's largest vaccination efforts.

However, the ministry acknowledged that the initial estimate underestimated the actual number of children who needed to be vaccinated, leaving around 10 percent of the targeted children unvaccinated.

Muhit explained that the ministry worked tirelessly to address the outbreak, but the shortage of health workers—approximately 15,000 positions vacant—impacted their ability to achieve full coverage. Despite this, the health workers' hard work resulted in a vaccination coverage of 90 percent. To ensure the outbreak is brought under control, the ministry plans to continue its efforts for another three months, vaccinating the remaining unvaccinated children to achieve community immunity.