A POSSIBLE outbreak of measles is seen by the Department of Health (DOH) in 2021.
Dr. Ruby Constantino, regional director of DOH-Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), said the outbreak is based on a study conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO).
"Based on a study, there is an analysis of the World Health Organization that for the last three years, there are increasing number of missed children, meaning they did not receive the measles which accumulates on second and third year, which is why they are expecting another outbreak of measles next year," Constantino said.
Constantino acknowledged that an outbreak of measles was recorded in 2019, which started February, with the DOH launching anti-measles campaign until July 2019.
"We now have 395 measles cases in the region from January to September 26 with zero deaths as compared to 1,059 cases recorded in the same period last year with five deaths, having a 62 percent decrease but this is to emphasize that we should not be complacent because we should have zero cases of measles," Constantino added.
Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by a virus and spreads easily to others when an infected person coughs or sneezes, and through close personal contact, vaccination is seen as the best protection against the condition.
"Despite the Covid, we should continue the provision of health services, including immunization. In fact, in the Bayanihan II Law, there is a provision that immunization should continue because while we have the coronavirus, we would like to prevent diseases which are measles and polio. Let us not add to the Covid by having measles and polio outbreak which will have a great impact to the health system if we have an outbreak," Constantino said.
The health department estimated 2.4 children under five years old are also susceptible to measles, which has been considered one of the world's most contagious diseases.
A nationwide measles rubella-oral polio vaccine supplemental immunization activity (MR-OPV SIA), meanwhile, will be rolled out in two phases.
Phase 1 will be conducted from October 26 to November 25, 2020 in Mindanao, Cordillera Administrative Region, Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Mimaropa and Bicol, while Phase 2 will be conducted in February next year.