Q. Please write about measles, its cause, symptoms, treatment, etc. Is it not possible to eradicate measles like what we did with small pox?

--Louella H., Valenzuela City  

A. Measles is an infectious viral disease. It is highly contagious, so highly contagious that practically no one who has had no immunization against the measles virus can go through life without getting afflicted with the disease.

The measles virus is transmitted by inhalation of airborne droplets from nasal or throat secretions of infected persons, direct contact with nasal or throat secretions or urine, and contact with articles freshly soiled with nasal or throat secretions.

The usual presenting sign of measles is fever that appears eight to 13 days after entry of the virus into the body. The fever is typically accompanied by non-specific respiratory tract symptoms that include cough, sore throat and runny nose. Sometimes redness of the eye and photophobia (sensitivity of the eyes to light) also occur. Three to seven days after the start of the illness, the blotchy red skin rashes that characterize measles emerge. The skin rashes first appear on the face then spread throughout the body in a matter of days.

A person with measles is communicable from the onset of fever to four days after the appearance of the skin rashes.

There is no specific treatment for measles. In well-nourished children, the disease is rarely serious, subsiding spontaneously in one to two weeks. But in poorly nourished children, the disease often complicates. The more common serious and often fatal complications of measles are pneumonia, diarrhea and encephalitis (inflammation of the brain).

Although there is no treatment for measles, there is a very effective way of preventing it. This is with the use of the measles vaccine. Indeed, and this is in answer to your question, it is possible to eliminate the disease completely from the country by immunizing a certain percentage of the population with the vaccine. In fact, the Philippines has already attempted to do this.  In 1998, our Department of Health (DoH) embarked on a countrywide measles elimination program called “The Measles Elimination Campaign” that aimed to eradicate measles in the Philippines by the year 2008.

The first phase of that 10-year program, dubbed "Catch Up Measles Campaign," involved a month-long countrywide vaccination of children who are nine months to below 15 years of age. The well-conducted campaign was completed in April 1999 and reached more than 96 percent of the targeted children. The campaign was an unqualified success. The number of reported cases of the disease went down from an average of 12,000 (with 3,000 deaths) per annum before the start of the campaign to just 3,000 in 1999.

The second-phase of the program, dubbed “Ligtas Tigdas” was conducted in February 2004.  As in the first phase, free measles vaccines were given, but this time only to all children between nine months and eight years of age.

We now know that our efforts to completely eradicate measles by 2008 have not been that successful because late last year an outbreak of the disease occurred in the Visayas and in the latter half of February 2010 measles outbreak was reported in six areas in the Philippines, including Metro Manila. Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral said that an outbreak of measles was declared in Tondo, Manila; Las Piñas City; Dasmarinas, Cavite; San Francisco town in Quezon Province; and Balabagan town in Lanao del Sur. A total of 570 cases of measles have been recorded since February with children aged one to nine as its common victims.

Dr. Renilyn Reyes, Center for Health Development regional coordinator for the Expanded Program for Immunization blames the resurgence of measles in the Western Visayas area on “the accumulation of the susceptibles” or poor vaccination coverage.

To stem the outbreak, the DOH has sent health workers to different parts of the country to conduct immunization services against measles.

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