At least 1mn children in Manila aged six to 59 months will be given anti-measles vaccines starting today, to prevent the number of possible victims of the dreaded disease from rising, according to the Philippine Red Cross (PRC). The PRC on Thursday said it learned about the big number of children needing measles vaccination during a dialogue with over 200 barangay (village) chairmen at the San Andres sports complex in Manila’s San Andres district.
The 1mn children, which is about half of Manila’s population, is just the estimated number of people immediately needing vaccination.
They live in Manila’s 897 barangay, according to the PRC.
Official vaccination, according to the PRC media bureau, starts with information dissemination in schools and barangay centres to let parents of the children know that there will be massive immunisation of children within that age bracket.
The PRC said it would decide in the following days if similar dialogues with barangay chairman of Metro Manila’s 15 other cities would be needed to further know the number of children needing anti-measles vaccines all over Metro Manila.
As of February 12, there were 4,302 children all over the country aged 0 to 12 afflicted with measles.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council also on Thursday reminded the public to have their unvaccinated children take immunisation shots to prevent the measles outbreak from further spreading.
The agency ordered the regional councils to convene to address the issue.
Last week, the Department of Health (DoH) declared measles outbreaks in several areas in Luzon and Visayas.
The DoH reported that an estimated 2.6mn children below five years are targeted to be vaccinated in 2019.
An additional 1mn doses of measles rubella vaccine (MRV) are expected to arrive by the second week of March to augment existing supplies.
Sen.
Richard Gordon, also PRC chairman, said the DoH needs to step up its information drive on the importance of immunisation.
He noted that while the Dengvaxia controversy might have contributed to the significant drop in vaccine confidence last year, a declining trend in vaccination coverage has already been noted since 2014.
Measles is a serious and highly contagious disease.
It can cause debilitating or fatal complications, including encephalitis (an infection that leads to swelling of the brain), severe diarrhoea and dehydration, pneumonia, ear infections and permanent vision loss.
A mother talks to a nurse at the Philippine Red Cross Measles Care Unit at the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila.
