By
Krystelle Luken Pangpangdeo
BAGUIO CITY -- An
official of the Department of Health (DOH) in Cordillera Administrative Region
(CAR) on Wednesday said there is a gradual decrease in measles cases for the
past few weeks in the region.
"Although
measles cases this year increased more than last year, yet basing on our
epidemic threshold, we can see a gradual decrease of these cases in the past
few weeks," Karen Lonogan, DOH-CAR Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance
Unit Senior Health Program Officer, said, citing the Disease Surveillance
Report.
DOH records
show that during the first eight weeks of the year, there is an increasing
trend of measles cases, peaking on the 8th week with 98 cases.
The report
noted a decreasing trend starting on the ninth week, with the 17th week
recording only three cases.
Lonogan said
they have conducted a vaccination program where they visited the different
barangays in the region -- doing house-to-house visits to reach children who
have yet to get vaccinated.
In 2018, the
Cordillera recorded only 43 measles cases from January 1 to April 30 with no
recorded deaths. In 2019, the statistics spiked to 680 with three deaths.
Most of the
cases this year were in Benguet with 257 cases and three deaths, Baguio with
250 cases, Apayao with 61, Abra with 46, Ifugao with 22, Mountain Province with
19 and Kalinga with 15, DOH records show.
Lonogan said
out of the 680 cases from January 1 to April 30, 2019, there were 268 or 39
percent afflicted with the disease who earlier received vaccines while 354 or
52 percent of them unvaccinated.
Fifty-eight
of the patients or 9 percent of them do not know whether they were immunized as
children or not.
The
data also shows that 20 percent of the cases involve adults who are 25 years
old and above followed by children who are one to four years old and babies
below nine months old at 18 percent.
Dr. Mary
Cristy Jamora, medical officer of the Pediatrics department at the Baguio
General Hospital and Medical Center, said babies below nine months old who have
been afflicted with measles is alarming as they are those who have not been
vaccinated.
Measles
vaccine is given to children at the age of nine months.
Lonogan
said at the height of cases, the DOH conducted an Outbreak Response
Immunization where they administered the measles vaccine to six months old
babies.
Outbreak
Response Immunization also aims to achieve a higher rate of vaccination for
"herd immunity" so that younger age groups that cannot be vaccinated
will also be protected.
The
common symptoms of measles are dry cough, runny nose, sore throat, and
rashes. -- PNA
No comments:
Post a Comment