DOH declares measles outbreak in NCR

February 6, 2019

The Department of Health (DOH) late Wednesday declared a measles outbreak in the National Capital Region (NCR).

This was after the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila, one of the department's referral hospitals for infectious diseases, recorded a high number of admissions.

“We are declaring an outbreak in the National Capital Region as cases have increased in the past weeks,” said Health Secretary Francisco Duque said in a statement.

Data from the San Lazaro Hospital showed there were 1,504 measles cases from January 1 to February 5.

This includes 1,240 cases in January and another 264 cases in February. There were 55 deaths reported in the same period. For January 2018, there were 688 cases.

Of the 55 deaths, 47 were in January while February saw eight more deaths. 

The DOH had cited continued distrust and lack of confidence towards vaccines as main reason.

“There is a loss of confidence among our people. There are doubts. But we hope we can convince our people anew on the safety and values of vaccines,” DOH Undersecretary Eric Domingo said in a previous interview.

Vaccine confidence in the country went down from 93 percent in 2015 to only 32 percent in 2018. DMS