Measles cases dropping as Health dept reaches vaccination target
Credit to Author: CATHERINE A. MODESTO| Date: Fri, 05 Apr 2019 12:09:52 +0000
THE number of new measles cases decreased in the past weeks, as the Department of Health (DoH) had reached its vaccination target.
Data from the epidemiology bureau of the department said there were 596 measles cases from March 20 to 21, lower than the 1,088 recorded from March 13-14.
“We’re monitoring right now, we know that the number of cases have been decreasing and in fact some provinces and municipalities have had no new cases in the past few weeks. But the trend has to be validated and it has to be nationwide,” Health Undersecretary Rolando Domingo said on Friday.
Domingo said that the number was going down because response to vaccines got better. The public regained their confidence in vaccines after they got scared of the measles epidemic, which was declared in early February, Domingo said.
Domingo said that parents refused to have their children vaccinated after the Dengvaxia dengue vaccine controversy. He said previously that it “aggravated” the low immunization levels in the country.
Dengvaxia was part of the mass immunization program of the DoH in 2016 until its manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur disclosed in November 29, 2017 that the vaccine recipients with “seronegative” status, or those who never had dengue infection, may be at risk of a more serious disease.
The DoH said that a total of 891,295 children from Central Luzon, Calabarzon and Metro Manila were injected at least once with Dengvaxia.
The DoH has immunized 3,783,985 children aged six to 59 months after the department had intensified its efforts to control the measles outbreak in five regions —Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon), Metro Manila, Central Luzon, and Central and Western Visayas.
However, the DoH is catching up to vaccinate five million school-age children, as less than 500,000 have so far received protection against measles, Domingo said.
“The coverage is still low. We have not reached 10 percent of 5 million children. They are going to be vaccinated in the community during summer break. When the classes start, we will continue to vaccinate in schools just to make sure that even the older children are covered,” the health official said.
He said that the reason why there was still low vaccination rates among children in kindergarten to Grade 6 was because the government health workers just started with school-based immunization. They will continue in June.
Domingo also said that the measles outbreak alert has not been lifted.
For us to be able to say that it is completely under control, means no new cases for about six weeks, Domingo added.
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