By NewsDesk  @infectiousdiseasenews

Back in February, Philippines health officials declared a measles outbreak in five of the country’s regions.

Image/Jim Goodson, M.P.H.

Today, all 17 Philippine regions now have outbreaks of the contagious, vaccine preventable disease.

During the first six months of 2019, the Department of Health reported 38,602 measles cases, including 522 deaths.

The median age of people dying is one year old and the case fatality rate is high, at an average of 1.4 per
cent with a range of 0.2 per cent to 2.2 per cent. So far, on average, 20 children are dying per week from
measles this year.

This year’s measles numbers are much higher than during the same period last year– there were 10,148 cases and 86 deaths. In the whole year of 2018, there were 21,812 measles cases reported with 202 deaths.

The DOH, in an effort to battle this outbreak, instituted another round of supplemental immunization program, targeting 3.8 million children aged 6 to 59 months.

DOH’s latest reporting show the number of cases per week has now returned to below the number of the same period in 2018. This indicates that the epidemic is stabilizing from the its most deadly phase.

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