DOH-7 pushes anti-measles vaccination

CEBU, Philippines — The Department of Health-7 continues with its campaign to encourage the public to get vaccinated against measles.

Vaccine posts for measles, in response to the outbreak, will only be until March 31, 2019.

However, those who will fail to avail may go to their respective barangay health centers for the weekly immunizations.

"But we don't know yet when the outbreak will be lifted. So, it depends. If there are still a lot of cases, we can extend," Dr. Jeanette Cortes, medical officer of DOH told The Freeman.

According to reports, there are already 737 cases and eight deaths recorded from January 1 to March 6 this year.

All the eight deaths are recorded in Cebu.

Cortes said that their primary target are babies aged 6 to 59 months old and that they have already vaccinated 61,304, which is only 16.3 percent of their target.

"We are hoping that our coverage will increase because we still have three weeks to go," she added.

Those who would want to get vaccinated must make sure that they are not allergic to the vaccine. If they are having fever, schedule of vaccination must be moved to another date. — Micole Gerard J. Tizon, USC Intern MBG (FREEMAN)