More parents trust measles vaccine
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Thu, 07 Mar 2019 07:47:50 +0000
The Department of Health said yesterday that vaccine hesitancy among parents has been dropping, a month after the DoH declared a measles outbreak in five regions in the country.
“Mas mataas na ang vaccine trust ngayon. Konti nalang ang refusals,” said Health Undersecretary Rolando Enrique Domingo.
Domingo said that as of March 1, they have administered measles vaccines to 1,153,477 children aged six to 59 months. The figure is 30 percent of the Health department’s target of vaccinating 3,783,985 children.
“We are now working with all government agencies like DepEd, DILG, DSWD, uniformed personnel, local government units to hit the target,” said Domingo.
The DoH had earlier said that vaccine hesitancy is one of the reasons for the measles outbreak in the National Capital Region, Central Luzon, Region 4-A, Western Visayas, and Central Visayas.
Vaccine hesitancy refers to the delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of vaccination services.
Latest data from the DoH-Epidemiology Bureau showed that there are 16,349 measles cases reported from Jan. 1 to March 2. The figure includes 261 deaths. (Analou de Vera)