Dengue, measles, diphtheria cases drop in Q1 2022: DOH

MANILA – The number of dengue, measles, and diphtheria cases in the country has dropped from January to March compared to the same period last year, a health official said Friday.

In a briefing, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire noted there are 10,915 recorded cases of dengue from January until March 19 which is lower compared to last year’s 20,213 cases during the same months.

As for measles, there are 45 reported cases for the first three months this year which is also lower compared to 83 cases last year.

Vergeire said the decrease in the number of reported measles cases may have been affected by the implementation of minimum public health standards, reduced interactions among individuals due to coronavirus disease 2019 restrictions, and non-reporting of cases to rural health units.

“Patuloy natin pataasin ang ating routine immunization rates lalo na sa ating mga kabataan para maprotektahan tayo sa mga sakit na nabanggit (Let’s continue to increase our routine immunization rates especially among our children for protection against such diseases),” she added.

The Department of Health will conduct routine immunization from April to June every last Thursday and Friday of the month.

It aims to vaccinate at least 80 percent of the remaining 1.1 million infants who missed their routine immunization in 2021.