Davao City announces measles outbreak

The Davao City Health Office (CHO) on Monday declares a measles outbreak as the number of people infected by the highly-contagious virus increases in just a span of three months. (Photo by Carol E. Davis via U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Europe District/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

The Davao City Health Office (CHO) on Monday declared a measles outbreak as the number of people infected by the highly-contagious virus rapidly increased in just a span of three months.

CHO has already recorded a total number of 222 cases of measles, locally known as tigdas, from November 2017 to January this year. 68 of those who have been found positive of the infection were in January alone.

According to the pamphlets released by the Department of Health (DOH), measles is described as a virus that prospers well in the country due to climate change, and it infects most when temperature levels are low.

The DOH stated that symptoms of measles infection include high fever, coughs, inflammation of the eyes, and a total-body skin rash.

Doctor Josephine Villafuerte, city’s chief health officer, said a total of 13,000 children aged five months to 59 months have been given vaccination since the first case of measles was reported two weeks ago.

She explained that these are done through fixed site, house-to-house, and health center measles immunization.

Just last week, there are also some 16 call center agents reported positive of the virus.

“We wanted to avoid the spread of the virus,” Villafuerte said in a press release.

Villafuerte added that a single case of measles could “lead to an outbreaks” as a “highly infectious” nature of the virus.

To avoid the spread of the virus, the chief health officer said they have been increasing information campaign on measles awareness, and that the agency keeps on advising workplaces that if any of their employees shows signs of measles, that employee should not report for work.

According to the Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit of DOH, Davao City had the most number of measles cases, apart from dengue, in the first three months of 2014.