Local News

Report: Measles kills 22 in Davao City

Lyka Amethyst H. Casamayor

THE Davao City Epidemiological Surveillance Unit (Davao CESU) recorded 22 measles deaths from January to September 2018.

In the data from CESU, there are 602 suspected cases of measles in the city from January to September of this year and 45 of those are confirmed cases.

District C consisting of barangays 21-C, 22-C, 23-C, 24-C, 25-C, 26-C, 27-C, 28-C, 29-C, and 30-C, has 83 suspected measles cases and five deaths, the highest so far in the city.

The data prompted the city government of Davao to intensify vaccination and immunization to children through the School-based immunization of the City Health Office (CHO) last August 2018; however, the CHO has low turnout as parents continue to fear Dengvaxia.

“Measles (vaccine) has been given for decades with no complications and dengvaxia is new, we are not giving it [to the public],” CHO head Doctor Josephine Villafuerte said on a text message to SunStar Davao on Tuesday.

She further said that measles could be fatal but could be prevented by having their measles shots.

“The public must be aware that immunization is available for free all over the country and Wednesdays are immunization nationwide,” Villafuerte said, adding that parents have to bring their children for immunization and even during the measles immunization activities.

Chief Technical Division of the CHO Doctor Julinda Acosta said yesterday the school-based immunization program continued to have a low turnout and this has become a problem.

“Ang measles ay hindi pa nawawala,” she said, adding that their office may have to give the vaccines to private schools to be of used since parents from public schools refuse to have their children immunized and vaccinated.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported over 17,200 measles cases in the Philippines in 2018 or 367 percent increase compared to last year. LHC

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