MANILA, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The number of cases and deaths due to an outbreak of measles continued to rise in the Philippines, according to the data culled by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
As of March 2, OCHA said 16,349 measles cases including 261 deaths were reported by the Philippine Department of Health (DOH).
"There are a number of reports of cases from the Philippines in neighboring countries," OCHA said in its latest report.
The Philippine government has launched a large-scale information campaign urging parents to have their children vaccinated.
The DOH is doing house-to-house vaccinations nationwide, with a strategy to vaccinate all children under five.
The Philippine Red Cross has mobilized volunteers to support the immunization campaign and has set up tents in hospitals dedicated to responding to the measles outbreak, according to OCHA.
On Feb. 6, the DOH declared a "measles outbreak" in Metro Manila. On Feb. 7, the DOH announced that the measles outbreak had spread to more areas in the Philippine main Luzon island, Western Visayas and Central Visayas in the central Philippines.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said over half of the measles cases are under five years of age, with a median age of two years old. Of the total measles cases, it said 63 percent have not been vaccinated, 19 percent have unknown number of doses and 16 percent have unknown vaccination status.
DOH has reported rising measles since last year with 18,407 cases in 2018 compared to 2,428 cases in 2017, a nearly eight-fold increase.
WHO estimates that 2.6 million children under the age of five years in the Philippines are not protected from measles.
As long as routine immunization remains low in the Philippines, WHO Philippines medical officer Achyut Shrestha said the Philippines will experience periodic measles outbreaks.
Measles is a highly contagious viral disease that is transmitted via droplets from the nose, mouth or throat of infected persons. Initial symptoms usually appear 10 to 12 days after infection. Common complications include pneumonia and diarrhea.
