Attachments
Description of the disaster
On 7 February 2019, the DOH declared the first outbreaks of measles in five Regions (Region NCR, and Central Luzon Regions III, IV-A, VI, VII). Since then, the number of regions with outbreaks has increased to 17.
Based on the DOH’s Measles and Rubella Surveillance Report – for the reporting period 1 January to 22 November 2019 –, there have been 43,214 measles cases reported, with 570 deaths. For the same period last year, there were 17,630 cases and 162 deaths. In the whole year of 2018, there were 21,812 measles cases reported with 202 deaths. The median age of people dying is one year old and the case fatality rate is at an average of 1.3 per cent.
To address the outbreak, the DOH mounted another round of supplemental immunization program, targeting 3.8 million children aged six to 59 months. DOH issued guidelines for a nationwide measles vaccination, accompanied by Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) and Vitamin A distribution, prioritising unvaccinated children between six to 59 months; school children from kindergarten to grade 6; and adults who voluntarily wish to be vaccinated against measles.
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. The main priority now should be supporting the government initiatives to ensure at least 95 per cent coverage of population will provided with measles containing vaccine (MCV) – be it Measles, Mumps and Rubella (MMR) or Measles and Rubella (MR) –, OPV and Vit. A (as proposed by the DOH).
Summary of current response
PRC’s Operations Centre is collecting and collating all the data on measles cases and PRC’s ongoing response and issue regular updates. The PRC Health Service through their chapters and trained volunteers continues to scale up the monitoring of cases and the response to affected communities on the ground. PRC is coordinating with the DOH Epidemiology Bureau. For relevant information sharing and support, PRC also continues to engage and coordinate with the NCR Infectious Diseases Cluster.
From 10 February up to the 12 June PRC has carried out the following response activities:
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Measles Care Units (MCUs): set up MCUs across six hospitals and treated 3,735 patients and supported their immediate family members.
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Vaccination: PRC teams with more than 2,000 volunteers has vaccinated a total number of 16,956 children, supported by 20 chapters across 21 cities and municipalities. Each vaccination team comprised of one doctor or senior nurse and three vaccinators (who are essentially practicing nurses), 2 recorders, 2 social mobilizer/ health promoters and one person responsible for community mobilization and basic logistics. The doctor or the senior nurse was the team leader, who was responsible for quality of the vaccination, refusal management, waste management and ensuring that the adverse effects are well explained to the beneficiaries before the vaccination is administered. He/ She also responsible for overall quality and universal precaution compliance before during and after the vaccination. The team is generally given a two hours orientation at the chapter level by PRC staffs and the nearest health centres’ doctors on the dos and don’ts of mass vaccination in an Out-Break Immunization model for through selected beneficiary selection strategy.