DAVAO City Health Office (CHO) reported that the number of cases of measles in the city continues to rise since November 2017.

"Hindi natin masabi na bumababa kasi kung titingnan natin ang epidemic growth na sinusundan namin, paakyat pa lang siya, saka pa naming masabi kung pababa ang curve," Davao City Health Officer Dr. Josephine Villafuerte told reporters on Monday.

This year, the CHO already recorded seven deaths with 136 suspected cases.

In 2017, only eight deaths were recorded, with 163 suspected cases recorded in November to December 2017.

It was last January 22 this year when the CHO declared an outbreak of measles following the rising number of cases from November 2017 to January 2018.

Villafuerte said they recorded cases of deaths this year from Barangay 23-C, Matina, and Toril.

Villafuerte said new cases have also been recorded at Barangay 23-C.

She said most of these new cases come from households that have more than one family wherein some mothers in one household refused to immunize their child.

Meanwhile, Villafuerte said they already conducted an outbreak response immunization (ORI) to 112,000 children as of February 9, 2017.

She said one of the interventions on this outbreak involve the distribution of Vitamin A to increase resistance of the children. The CHO also continues to provide immunization at health centers for those who have not availed of the vaccine yet.

She added that a team from CHO also conducted another batch of immunization last Saturday and Sunday at Buhangin and Callawa.