Health and Family Welfare Minister Sardar Md Sakhawat Hossain has directed officials to eliminate disparities in vaccination coverage between urban and rural areas and ensure that the immunisation program covers every child in the country.
He instructed field-level workers to conduct door-to-door visits to identify eligible children and ensure that none are left out of vaccination services.
He made the remarks as the chief guest at a workshop titled “Dissemination of Findings of the Joint Independent Review of EPI and VPD Surveillance in Bangladesh 2026” at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka on Wednesday.
The minister said vaccination efforts must extend beyond designated centres, with field workers identifying eligible children through household visits.
He stressed the need to reach every child in remote and hard-to-reach areas to achieve universal vaccination coverage.
Emphasising the importance of vaccine quality, Sakhawat Hossain said the cold chain system must be properly maintained and regularly monitored. Quality must be ensured at every stage, from vaccine supply to administration, while vaccine effectiveness and immunity levels should also be assessed regularly.
He said immunisation is essential to protecting future generations from infectious diseases and epidemics. The Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), launched in Bangladesh in 1979, has played a vital role in protecting children against several serious diseases, he said.
The minister also acknowledged the contributions of international partners, including Gavi, Unicef and the World Health Organization (WHO), to the implementation of the program.
Speaking as a special guest, Prime Minister’s Health Affairs Special Assistant Dr SM Ziauddin Hyder said the government had undertaken health sector reforms to ensure quality healthcare for everyone, from marginalised communities to urban residents.
As part of the initiative, the government plans to establish dedicated primary healthcare units in every union and every urban ward. The process of recruiting an additional 100,000 Community Health and Wellbeing Workers has also begun to bring healthcare services closer to people, he said.
Dr Ziauddin Hyder added that evaluating the outcomes of immunisation programs and disease surveillance would play an important role in improving the overall quality of healthcare and ensuring accountability.
The workshop was chaired by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Director General Prof Dr Pravat Chandra Biswas.
WHO Bangladesh Deputy Representative Dr Rajesh Norwell, Unicef Bangladesh Acting Representative Gillian Mellsop and other relevant officials were also present.