DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Eight-month-old Rojatun Jannat Ramisa is struggling to breathe in a hospital in Bangladesh’s capital as her parents sit helplessly beside her. She's one of thousands of children sickened by a measles outbreak that's sweeping across the country and has killed hundreds of children following setbacks to the country's vaccine program.
Ramisa’s mother Ranu Akhter traveled hundreds of kilometers (miles) after doctors in eastern Bangladesh referred her to a specialized child hospital in Dhaka to seek treatment for the life-threatening condition.
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A woman brings her child for treatment of measles outbreak in a hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
Patients receive treatment during a measles outbreak as family members sit beside them in an overcrowded hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
A child rests as he receives treatment during a measles outbreak in a hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
Patients receive treatment during a measles outbreak as family members sit beside them in an overcrowded hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
A woman takes care of her child while getting treatment for measles during the outbreak, in a hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
“Fourteen days ago, when we were at the district hospital, there were other children being treated alongside my daughter. I saw that those children also had red rashes on their bodies, sores in their mouths and fevers,” Akhter told The Associated Press at Dhaka Shishu Hospital.
“It made me realize how widespread the measles outbreak is,” she said.
Every day, the death toll is rising.
Bangladesh has been racing to halt the outbreak's spread since March, when more than 100 children died in less than a month. By Tuesday, the death toll from suspected measles cases reached 999 since the start of the year, according to the government’s Directorate General of Health Services.
Since March, the country has recorded more than 166,000 suspected measles cases, including 19,835 laboratory-confirmed infections, according to the Ministry of Health.
The government launched an emergency vaccination drive in March together with the World Health Organization, the U.N. children’s agency and the Gavi vaccine alliance. It began with a focus on children from 6 months to 5 years old and later expanded nationwide in phases.
Measles is a highly contagious airborne disease that causes fever, respiratory symptoms and a characteristic rash. It can sometimes have severe or fatal complications, especially in young children, according to the WHO.
Two doses of a vaccine provide strong protection against measles, but the WHO says 95% of the population has to be vaccinated in order to stop the disease from spreading — which protects children like Ramisa who are too young to be vaccinated as well as immunocompromised people.
A few years ago, Bangladesh had measles largely under control, with a vaccination program that was credited for decades for protecting children and mothers from the deadly diseases of tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus, poliomyelitis and measles. Between 2021 and 2025, the country recorded just 100 to 300 cases per year, down from 2,410 cases in 2020.
But in the last few years, disruptions to the vaccine program have left a growing number of children unvaccinated.
First the pandemic interrupted routine vaccinations, and then in 2024 the government largely missed a vaccination campaign previously carried out every four years.
Atiqul Islam, a neonatal and child specialist at Bangladesh Shishu Hospital and Institute, said during the pandemic period in 2021 and 2022, many did not take their children to get vaccinated.
“So, if you look at children who are now four or five years old, many of them missed their vaccinations. That created a gap. During the previous interim government, vaccines were also unavailable at many vaccination centers,” he said.
Bangladesh's current government, headed by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, said the failures in planning under ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and interim leader Muhammad Yunus left the country with shortages of vaccines and far behind on coverage.
The 2024 measles vaccination campaign was disrupted during the political upheaval that led to Hasina’s ouster. She left the country in the face of a mass uprising in August 2024, and was followed by Yunus, who led an interim administration that transferred power to an elected government after an election in February.
From exile in India, Hasina blamed the Yunus-led government for the disaster.
At Bangladesh Shishu Hospital, Islam said the situation has improved, but not enough.
The doctor said his colleagues are struggling to treat infected children who often arrive at the hospital with serious complications like pneumonia, diarrhea and encephalitis, or brain swelling.
“For the past six months, we have been treating measles patients continuously, and we are exhausted,” he said.
A woman brings her child for treatment of measles outbreak in a hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
Patients receive treatment during a measles outbreak as family members sit beside them in an overcrowded hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
A child rests as he receives treatment during a measles outbreak in a hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
Patients receive treatment during a measles outbreak as family members sit beside them in an overcrowded hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
A woman takes care of her child while getting treatment for measles during the outbreak, in a hospital in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmud Hossain Opu)
OSLO, Norway (AP) — Norway was bidding its final farewell to King Harald V on Wednesday as the popular monarch's coffin set off for a funeral attended by royalty and leaders from across Europe and beyond, with thousands of people lining the streets.
A 21-gun salute rang out over the capital at the start of the funeral procession from the royal palace to Oslo Cathedral. Harald's son, new King Haakon VIII, and other senior royals walked behind the coffin, draped with the red Norwegian royal standard.
Harald's widow, Queen Sonja, and Haakon's wife, Queen Mette-Marit, followed in a car. Norwegian officials and foreign dignitaries, among them royals from around the continent and political leaders including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, joined the procession.
Harald, who died on Aug. 28 aged 89, was Europe’s oldest monarch and had reigned for 35 years.
He had modernized the royal house, but refused to follow in the footsteps of other aging monarchs who have abdicated in recent times. His son immediately became king and last week took an oath of allegiance to Norway’s constitution in parliament.
Large crowds flocked to the capital for the funeral, and thousands stood behind barriers on streets lined with national flags. The downtown area was closed to vehicles and electric scooters, and police had instructed people not to bring bicycles, umbrellas or sharp objects.
People were tuning in from across the country. Scores of churches, libraries, cultural centers and city halls were making big screens available for the public to watch the funeral, public broadcaster NRK reported.
Ahead of the funeral, Norwegians waited patiently to file past Harald's coffin in the chapel of the royal palace. The queue was seven hours long at one point over the weekend. Over 46,000 people visited the chapel during the week it lay in state.
Among the guests expected on Wednesday were the monarchs of Sweden, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Jordan. The heir to the British throne, Prince William, was also expected, as is Crown Prince Akishino of Japan. Presidents from a range of European countries will join them.
Zelenskyy was also on hand. On Tuesday, he met with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in Oslo to discuss the war in Ukraine. The United States will be represented by Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker.
A minute's silence will be held across Norway at the start of the funeral ceremony. Eulogies will be delivered by Norway's parliament speaker and prime minister, and there will be a candlelighting ceremony with representatives of different faiths.
The government says it's not an official holiday, but schools and workplaces could individually opt to let students and employees tune in for Wednesday's events. The government advised that “noisy events should be suspended while the funeral is ongoing.”
After the funeral, Harald's coffin will be taken in a procession to the palace chapel at Akershus Castle, where the late king's ancestors are buried. After a private ceremony for the Norwegian royals, who will be joined by some of the foreign guests and senior Norwegian officials, it will be lowered into the crypt.
Norway’s monarchy traces its origins to King Harald Fairhair in the ninth century. When Norway regained its independence from Sweden in 1905, three-quarters of voters in a national plebiscite approved restoring the monarchy.
The Norwegian royal house has kinfolk in other European royal families. Harald and Haakon are related to both Britain’s King Charles III and Spain’s King Felipe VI: They’re all descendants of the U.K.'s Queen Victoria, who reigned from 1837 until her death to 1901.
Today, the throne's role is largely symbolic and power lies with the elected government and parliament, but the Norwegian royal family retains a role in promoting the wealthy Scandinavian nation around the world.
Norway's Queen Sonja and Queen Mette-Marit follow the procession carrying the coffin of King Harald V from the Royal Palace to Oslo Cathedral, in Oslo, Norway, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (Håkon Mosvold Larsen/NTB Scanpix via AP)
Members of Norway’s royal family, from left, Prince Sverre Magnus, King Haakon VIII, Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Princess Märtha Louise walk behind the coffin of King Harald V as it is carried from the Royal Palace to Oslo Cathedral in Oslo, Norway, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (Ole Berg-Rusten Name/NTB via AP, Pool)
The coffin of King Harald V is taken in procession from the Royal Palace to Oslo Cathedral, in Oslo, Norway, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (Håkon Mosvold Larsen/NTB Scanpix via AP)
The coffin of Norway’s King Harald V is carried from the Royal Palace to Oslo Cathedral during a funeral procession in Oslo, Norway, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (Ole Berg-Rusten Name/NTB via AP, Pool)
The coffin of Norway’s King Harald V is carried from the Royal Palace to Oslo Cathedral during a funeral procession in Oslo, Norway, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (Ole Berg-Rusten Name/NTB via AP, Pool)
Military personnel wait in front of Oslo Cathedral ahead of the procession for the funeral of Norway's King Harald V in Oslo, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
The coffin of King Harald V is taken in procession from the Royal Palace to Oslo Cathedral, in Oslo, Norway, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (Håkon Mosvold Larsen/NTB Scanpix via AP)
Sweden's King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia on board a bus at Oslo Airport as they arrive for King Harald V funeral, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (Frederik Ringnes/NTB Scanpix via AP)
Soldiers march up Karl Johan before the coffin of King Harald V is carried from the Palace to Oslo Cathedral, on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2025. (Ole Berg-Rusten/NTB Scanpix via AP)
Members of the public wait behind a barrier along the route of the procession for the funeral of Norway's King Harald V near Oslo Cathedral in Oslo, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Police officers reflected in a window with a display showing Norway's late King Harald V prior to his funeral in Oslo, Norway, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Norway's King Harald V's coffin is moved by King Harald's family and court staff from the Red Salon to the Palace Chapel in Oslo, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026. (Javad Parsa/Pool Photo via AP)
A painting of Norway's late King Harald stand in flora tributes at the Palace Square in Oslo, Norway, Monday, Sept. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is transported after arriving in Oslo, Norway, Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026, one day ahead of King Harald V's funeral. (Frederik Ringnes/NTB Scanpix via AP)
