After vaccine controversy, polio, measles outbreaks
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2019 16:30:21 +0000
THE Department of Health last week declared a polio outbreak with the discovery of a case of a three-year-old victim in Lanao del Sur and two other possible cases in Manila and Davao. Polio had been declared eliminated in the country in 2000, 19 years ago, after the last case reported in 1993.
Polio is a highly contagious disease caused by a virus that invades the nervous system, causing fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, stiff neck, and floppy arms and legs. It can lead to paralysis and death. Children below five years old are most vulnerable to the disease.
Secretary of Health Francisco Duque III said the one confirmed case in Lanao – along with finding that two samples from Manila’s sewage tested positive for polio virus – is “considered an epidemic in a polio-free country.” For years there had been near-total polio vaccination for children below 5 in the country, but this dropped to 95 percent in 2018 and it now stands at only 66 to 68 percent, the secretary said.
Earlier last February, 2019, the DoH declared outbreaks of another disease, measles, in five regions – Metro Manila, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Western Visayas, and Central Visayas. Initial reports placed the number of cases at 18,407 in 2018, up from only 2,428 in 2017.
The government immediately mounted a mass immunization program and by April, Secretary Duque reported that the number of new measles cases had gone down. But the outbreak is not yet over. The DoH would continue the mass immunization program until it reaches 95 percent coverage.
A recent study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that those who believe that “vaccines are important, are safe, and are effective had dropped from close to 100 percent in 2015 to 60-80 percent in2018” in the Philippines. The drop in public confidence in mass vaccination was believed caused by the Dengvaxia controversy.
In the wake of reports of so many dengue deaths linked to the introduction of the new vaccine in three regions of the country at t
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