Philippines: 136 people died in a measles epidemic

MANILA, Philippines (AP) – The Philippine Secretary of Health announced Monday that 136 people, most of them children, have died of measles and another 8,400 have fallen ill from an epidemic due in part to the fear of vaccination.

A mbadive vaccination campaign that began last week in Manila and four heavily affected provincial regions could contain the outbreak by April, said Health Secretary Francisco Duque III. President Rodrigo Duterte warned Friday in a televised message of life-threatening complications and urged children to be vaccinated.

"No ifs, no buts, no conditions, just take your children with you and count on the vaccines … will save your children," Duque said by phone. "It's the absolute answer to this epidemic."

Infections rose more than 1,000 percent in Manila, a densely populated capital of more than 12 million people, in January compared to last year, health officials said.

About half of the 136 deaths are children aged 1 to 4 years and many of those who died have not been vaccinated, officials said.

According to Mr. Duque, a government-led information campaign was helping to restore public confidence in its vaccination program, which was tainted in 2017 by the controversy surrounding a dengue vaccine manufactured by the French manufacturer Sanofi. Pastor, who would have caused the death of at least three children.

The Philippine government ended the anti-dengue vaccination campaign after Sanofi said that a study showed that the vaccine could increase the risk of serious dengue infections. The Dengvaxia vaccine was injected to more than 830,000 children as part of the campaign launched in 2016 under President Benigno Aquino III. The campaign continued under Duterte until it stopped in 2017.

Sanofi officials told Philippine congressional hearings that the dengyza vaccine was safe and effective and that it would help reduce dengue infections if the vaccination campaign continued.

"It seems that confidence has returned," Duque said of public confidence in the government's vaccination campaign, citing the vaccination of about 130,000 people out of 450,000 targeted by measles immunization in the metropolis. from Manila in just one week.

Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by a virus that can be transmitted through sneezing, coughing and close personal contact.

Complications include diarrhea, ear infections, pneumonia and encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, which can lead to death, according to the Ministry of Health.