Rohingya camps face shrinking healthcare amid funding crunch
Healthcare funding declined 39% while the population increased by more than 40%.
Highlights:
- Rohingya healthcare funding fell 39% despite population growing over 40%
- Fifty healthcare facilities have closed since 2021 amid funding shortages
- Healthcare workers declined from 5,200 in 2021 to 3,500
- Extreme camp density increases risks of infectious disease outbreaks
- Hepatitis C affects roughly one-fifth of adult Rohingyas
- Experts warn funding cuts could trigger a major public-health disaster
Healthcare services in Bangladesh's Rohingya camps are steadily shrinking as funding declines, even as the Rohingya population continues to grow, raising concerns over worsening health risks in the densely populated settlements.
According to the Office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC), the health sector received $81 million in 2021, when the Rohingya population was around 8.5 lakh. The allocation fell to $49.9 million in 2025 although the population approached 12 lakh. Healthcare funding therefore declined 39% while the population increased by more than 40%.
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Healthcare services shrinking
There are currently 118 health facilities and 40 nutrition centres in the camps, including six 24-hour field hospitals, 46 primary healthcare centres, 59 health posts and three diarrhoea treatment centres. In 2021, there were 168 health facilities and 59 nutrition centres. Since 2024, funding shortages have forced the closure of 16 health posts and six primary healthcare centres, while three more health posts are scheduled to close this month.
The number of healthcare workers has also fallen from more than 5,200 in 2021 to over 3,500 now. The current workforce includes 395 doctors, 380 nurses, 221 paramedics and 292 midwives.
High density, high infection risk
Around 7,50,000 Rohingya fled to Cox's Bazar in 2017 amid persecution and genocide by Myanmar's military. Bangladesh cleared nearly 8,000 acres of hilly and protected forest in Ukhiya and Teknaf to accommodate them. Although the population has since reached 12 lakh through new arrivals and births – 2.16 lakh children have been born since 2017 – the available land has remained unchanged. Around 38,000 people now live per square kilometre in the camps.
Experts warn that such density leaves the camps highly vulnerable to infectious disease outbreaks. Dengue, measles, rubella, cholera and polio outbreaks occur regularly, requiring continuous surveillance and vaccination. Yet the number of EPI centres has fallen from 195 in 2021 to 114 now.
Vaccination coverage among children aged 0-24 months has nevertheless improved substantially, rising from 16% in 2018 to 82% in 2025, compared with 90% nationally. Special campaigns against polio, cholera, diphtheria, measles and rubella are continuing.
HIV, hepatitis C raise concern
Official records show 1,163 HIV-positive patients in Cox's Bazar, including 998 Rohingya. Hepatitis C is an even larger concern, with around 1,02,000 people infected in the district, the overwhelming majority Rohingya. About one in five adult Rohingyas is infected, while around 60,000 patients have received antiviral treatment.
Treatment costs around Tk1,00,000 per person, leaving many patients without access. Research by icddr,b published in May found viral hepatitis prevalence among Rohingya refugees at 18.97%, with hepatitis C accounting for 17.24%. Among Bangladeshis in Ukhiya and Teknaf, hepatitis C prevalence is 2.3%, more than twice the national average of around 1.1%.
Dr Md Sarwar Jahan, assistant health coordinator at the RRRC office, attributed the spread among Rohingya to unsafe syringe reuse, unhygienic traditional medical practices, unsafe childbirth and inadequately screened blood transfusions in Myanmar.
He warned that the disease has already spread to Bangladeshis and said healthcare and surveillance systems need to be strengthened.
"If funding for healthcare under the Rohingya management programme declines, the entire public health sector will become vulnerable," he said, noting that Rohingyas increasingly move outside the camps for informal work and interact with host communities and tourists. Around 70-80 lakh tourists visit Cox's Bazar annually.
Health and nutrition services under pressure
Forty Infant and Young Child Feeding centres currently operate in the camps, while the World Food Programme distributes nutritious food to malnourished children and pregnant and breastfeeding women. But the funding crisis has prompted the integration of health and nutrition services, raising concerns over service quality.
Nutrition indicators have improved in recent years. Severe acute malnutrition fell from 5.2% in 2018 to 2.7% in 2024, while moderate acute malnutrition declined from 16.8% to 13.6%. However, the overall rate of acute malnutrition remains high at around 15.1%.
Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Mohammed Mizanur Rahman warned that declining healthcare funding could trigger a public health disaster.
"Reducing the scope of healthcare means pushing a population that has survived genocide and lives in densely populated refugee camps towards extinction," he said.
He added that the high prevalence of hepatitis C could become a major threat if not properly addressed.
