News 24 22 deaths reported after a measles epidemic in several parts of the Philippines

The Philippine Ministry of Health said Thursday that the measles outbreak in the Filipino capital, Manila, and in other regions had killed 22 people.

The Minister of Health, Francisco Doki III, said that the cause of high cases of infection was the low vaccination rate of children due to the panic caused by the controversial government immunization program against dengue fever in 2017 .

The Ministry of Health announced Wednesday that it had registered 441 cases of measles in Manila on January 26, compared with 36 in 2018 as a whole.

Doki announced today the emergence of a disease outbreak in the central and southern Luzon Islands as well as in central and western Visayas Island .

"These areas need to strengthen their response to measles and vaccinate all children who have not yet been vaccinated against measles, as it is an effective measure to further curb the disease." epidemic, "he said.

The French company Sanofi Buster revealed in 2017 that vaccination against dengue fever was dangerous for people who had not contracted the disease before vaccination. This disclosure led the Ministry of Health to suspend the vaccination program launched by President Pinino Aquino III.