Measles outbreaks
IT is certainly disheartening to know that poor immunization coverage caused last year’s measles outbreaks across the globe.
As a result, 57 countries, including the Philippines, experienced “large or disruptive” measles outbreaks in 2023.
The number was 60 percent higher than the 36 countries in the previous year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Records show that an estimated 107,500 people, mostly children younger than five years old, died due to the highly-contagious disease.
Official records also showed that only 69 percent of the more than 9.6 million Filipino children aged five and below received the complete two doses of the mandated measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.
A vaccine coverage of at least 95 percent is needed to prevent outbreaks and protect populations from the dreaded disease.
In 2023, a total of 2,892 Filipinos. mostly children, contracted the disease, with 1 6 reported deaths, according to reports.
Note, however, that the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Education (DepEd) have launched “Bakuna Eskwela.”
The vaccination campaign is aimed at immunizing 3.8 million public school students against measles-rubella and tetanus-diptheria.
It is certainly lamentable and frustrating that many of our countrymen, mostly children, still die of vaccine-preventable diseases.
That’s why we commend the government for intensifying its nationwide efforts to immunize our children against preventable diseases.
