Measles outbreak in the Philippines
manila — A health scare over a pioneering dengue vaccine is partly to blame for a decline in child immunisation and a deadly measles outbreak in the Philippines, a senior health official said on Tuesday.
The government has reported four outbreaks of measles, one of the world’s leading killers of children, since December, a period coinciding with the row over the dengue vaccine which some parents blamed for child deaths.
Manila suspended the Dengvaxia vaccine last December and threatened to sue Sanofi shortly after the French pharmaceutical firm disclosed that it could worsen symptoms for people not previously infected by the dengue virus.
Government programmes against other deadly but preventable diseases became collateral damage, with immunisation rates down below 60 per cent in January, Health Undersecretary Enrique Domingo said.
This compares to at least 80-85 per cent last year, he said.
“We have eradicated measles like 10 years ago but it’s coming back due to the low rates of vaccination within the communities,” he told reporters, adding this vaccine
We have eradicated measles like 10 years ago but it’s coming back due to the low rates of vaccination within the communities.” Enrique Domingo, Health Undersecretary
is given at the age of nine months.
Asked if lower immunisation rates this year were due to the Dengvaxia scare, he said “partly”, with insurgencies also blocking delivery of medical services in some southern areas.