Wazzup Pilipinas!
Measles is definitely one of the known diseases that can affect a lot of children as early as 6 months old or even younger. It has been long eradicated through the effective vaccination of infants but due to certain circumstances, especially in the Philippines, the long-dead disease began to resurface again. A lot of innocent children were pronounced dead and many more have succumbed to such disease when in the first place, it shouldn’t be a big threat anymore.
When Vaccination Fails
One of the probable reasons why parents have stopped vaccinating their babies with the right immunizations is because of the recent flop that happened with the Dengvaxia vaccine. MMR or the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine is usually administered to infants once a certain number of months is reached. But due to the recent deaths caused by the Dengvaxia vaccine, a lot of parents swayed away from having their kids administered with any form of a vaccine.
The immunization rates were already down their target of 95% and are continuously falling further due to the scare that has brought upon with vaccines. People lost their trust when it comes to vaccines and will rather not have their kids immunized because they believe that it will be just making their children sick.
By the Numbers
This lead to an outbreak in several regions in the Philippines wherein a lot of children has been positive with measles. Records show that there already has been a 74% increase of measles cases in the Philippines and it already reached an alert state wherein cases of measles have greatly increased to 550%.
Measles is an airborne disease that can be easily transferred from one child to another most especially if there’s no proper immunization present. A person can be infected with measles just by exposure to a person with measles and is transferred through coughing or sneezing. The symptoms of measles include rashes, cough, inflamed eyes, runny nose, and a high fever.
Why Measles is Dangerous
Complications due to measles are the primary reason for the death of a lot of children. Bronchopneumonia is one of these and it greatly affects the health state of a person leading to unwanted deaths. This is why having the children vaccinated is the best possible option that a parent can do to protect their kids from contracting such dangerous disease.
Parents should be wary of these circumstances and should not wait for complications to occur because it will be harder for it to be treated. In some cases, adults should also be vaccinated from this disease since it doesn’t only attack children but also older people as well.
Don’t let the Past Haunt the Present and the Future
Health officials publicly announced that parents should put everything in the past including the issue with the Dengvaxia vaccine and have their children vaccinated. It is time to set aside this controversy regarding Dengvaxia and step forward to keep their children’s health secured because the MMR vaccine has already been proven and tested compared to what Dengvaxia has proven.
The immunization for measles is free for people to have and it is a must to have the children vaccinated to help eradicate this outbreak that is already spreading across the country.
The government is already helping to promote the vaccination of children through certain campaigns which showed a few positive results. Some parents already had their children vaccinated due to this scare but other remains stiff on their foundation of having their children immunized will cause further complications.
Let’s stop this stigma that vaccines are not reliable and not effective. Don’t let one mistake affect the credibility of others. It is time to move up and be a responsible parent and have your children vaccinated against measles.
It is up to you to stop the spread of this dreadful disease that people have started. A vaccinated child against measles can go a long way in helping in lowering the number of cases and digging up the grave for measles to not to return again to this land.
About the Author:
Jahmil Caon is a content writer and blog owner. The man behind the blog swertrespost.com. A blog that provides honest and accurate information about swertres hearing, swertres results and tips.
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
