The Department of Health (DoH) is planning to come up with a vaccination drive against measles, this time, giving a second shot of anti-measles vaccines to children aged 12 to 15 months in order to put a complete halt to the spread of the disease.

“Starting this year, we will give second dose of measles vaccines, including German measles... right now the DoH is only giving anti-measles. This is different from the German measles,” Dr. Eric Tayag, National Epidemiology Center (NEC) Director said in an interview.

The DoH currently administers the anti-measles vaccine to children aged nine months to one year.

The NEC is also checking the records of hospitals to see whether there are cases of German measles in local hospitals.

He explained that the common measles and the German measles are both contagious.

“In German measles, there are lymph nodes at the back of the ears... the German measles causes congenital anomalies if the patient is pregnant. The baby can have congenital anomalies like heart disease. But they are both contagious.”

Last Monday, the DoH announced an outbreak of measles in several areas in the country after recording some 669 cases admitted in sentinel hospitals nationwide from January 1 to February 13.

The upsurge in the number of measles cases has also prompted the DoH to launch an imperative vaccination drive among young children in areas where a high index of the disease is seen.

Meanwhile, a community health expert said healthier children or those who are well-nourished and are living in better environments have a stronger chance of surviving complications arising from measles.

“Measles is a disease of the poor,” Dr. Junice Melgar, said in a separate interview.

Melgar, who is co-founder and executive director of Likhaan Center for Women’s health whose work entails going into poor communities, many of them, far-flung areas often neglected by local governments, said congestion aggravates measles. People living in poor conditions are usually more prone to the disease because congestion aids the measles virus to spread rapidly.

Measles is a self-limiting disease and healthy children affected by it are less likely to suffer from life-threatening complications such as bronchitis and pneumonia, Melgar noted. “Measles itself is not life-threatening, it is a self-regulating infection. It ends very quickly among healthy children.

Dr. Melgar said doctors are more wary of the fever because it might lead to convulsion. “That is more threatening than the fever itself, the convulsion. Another worry is bronchitis, brocho-pneumonia arising from colds. But this does not develop immediately and mothers can really monitor the child’s condition so this can be prevented,” she said.

But the expert said that if the child is healthy, his or her body can ward off the symptoms of the disease. “One way to tell if the child is undernourished is if the disease leads to complications, which means the child’s body cannot control the disease which is usually self-limiting. There are no prohibitions when it comes to food.”

In Manila, the city government launched a massive drive against measles by giving its residents free vaccines against the disease and conducting medical check-ups.

Dr. Jerry Ison, chief assistant of the Manila Health Department, said the city government's move to give free vaccines to its residents was done as an answer to the report of Department of Health (DoH) that the number of measles cases in several slum districts in the city is rising.

He also said that city health employees will also do house visits to check on the situation of city residents living in the affected area mentioned by the DoH.

Citing a report from DoH, Ison said the measles “hotspots” in Manila include Carlos Palanca, San Miguel, Parola, Tondo, and Sta. Cruz.

Ison noted that Baseco and Moriones in Tondo recorded the highest number of persons stricken with the disease as he explained that the said areas arecongested.

In Mindanao, the DoH in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) declared Wednesday that measles cases in Lanao del Sur, particularly in the coastal town of Balabagan, have been fully contained after experiencing earlier a reported outbreak.

DoH-ARMM Secretary Dr. Kadil Sinolinding Jr. bared the good news through a report he submitted to acting Regional governor Ansaruddin Alonto-Adiong, who earlier directed him to validate earlier published report on the inclusion of measles outbreak in Balabagan, Lanao del Sur.

“Please everything possible to address the reported outbreak,” Adiong was quoted as telling Dr. Sinolinding Jr. in an earlier call over the phone.

Sinolinding said he immediately sent health workers to investigate the report and conduct immunization against measles especially on children to avoid epidemic.

He said seven adults and a one-year-old child have been recorded in Balabagan, Lanao del Sur. “But no fatalities were posted as we closely monitored and validated reports on the disease,” the health secretary added.

The case was recorded on January 27, 2010, according to published reports. (With reports from Leonard Postrado and Ali G. Macabalang)