Measles outbreak in the Philippines kills 215 people
The Philippine Ministry of Health said on March 1 that measles outbreaks have recently occurred in many areas of the country. Since 2019, 215 people have died of measles.
The report released by the Philippine Ministry of Health on the same day showed that recent measles outbreaks have occurred in many provinces and cities in the central and northern parts of the Philippines. From January 1 to February 26, more than 13,000 people have been diagnosed and 215 of them have died. Most of the infected are children under 4 years of age.
Statistics from the Philippine Ministry of Health show that the number of measles cases in the Philippines has continued to increase since 2018. There were more than 18,000 measles cases diagnosed in the country that year. This number is nearly 8 times that of 2017, and this trend will continue until 2019. Still not contained.
Measles is a highly contagious viral disease. Most of the affected are children. Symptoms include fever, upper respiratory tract inflammation, cough, conjunctivitis, red macules on the skin, etc. It can cause symptoms such as pneumonia in severe cases. It even caused death. The most effective way to prevent measles is vaccination.
In an interview with Xinhua News Agency reporter on March 1, the expert from the World Health Organization Office in the Philippines, Akiyute Shresta, said that there are many reasons for the large-scale measles outbreak in the Philippines. In the past period of time, children in the country were vaccinated against measles. The continued decline in the rate is one of the main reasons.
Shresta said that according to statistics, most Filipino children who have contracted measles and died as a result have not been vaccinated against measles. The reasons for the low vaccination rate include the lack of correct knowledge and understanding of vaccines by many Filipino parents and the lack of vaccines in some remote areas of the country. Medical services, etc.