Measles cases rise from 5,000 to 27,000 in first 3 months

MANILA, Philippines — During the first three months of the year, the Department of Health (DOH) saw a five-fold increase in the number of measles cases nationwide to about 27,000 cases, from more than 5,000 cases in the same period last year.

As of March 30, the DOH Epidemiology Bureau recorded 26,956 measles cases, with 381 deaths. Last year, the bureau recorded 5,605 cases of the vaccine-preventable disease and 51 deaths.

The DOH noted that close to 60 percent of the cases this year involved children who were not inoculated with the measles vaccine.

The measles immunization rate dropped to 40 percent after the vaccine scare that resulted from the controversy over the government’s use of the dengue drug Dengvaxia, the DOH said.

The DOH is conducting, until April 8, a measles vaccination campaign in schools targeting 6.8 million students from kindergarten to Grade 6.

The National Capital Region had the most number of measles cases in the first three months at 5,586, followed by Calabarzon (5,281), and Central Luzon (4,287).

More than half of all the measles cases were children below 4 years old.