A photo of a baby’s feet. Photo from Unsplash
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City has recorded a total of 36 cases of pertussis for the first quarter of 2024, according to the head of the Cebu City Health Department (CCHD).
Dr. Daisy Villa, head of CCHD, said in a virtual press conference on Wednesday, March 27, that 12 out of 36 cases were suspected cases while 24 of which were clinically confirmed cases.
Of the number, they recorded a total of three deaths from the disease, babies whose ages ranged from 16 days old to two months old, and they died between January and February this year.
The age range of the cases were zero to 28 years old.
Among the symptoms of pertussis include “cough that lasts at least two weeks, paroxyms or fit of coughing, inspiratory whooping, and post-tussive vomiting,” Villa said.
READ: What is pertussis (whooping cough)?
Prevention through vaccination
According to various health experts, pertussis can be prevented through vaccination.
Dr. Eugenia Mercedes Cañal, regional epidemiologist of the Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7), said yesterday that they had DTaP vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis.
And at present, they have a pentavalent vaccine, which according to the WHO, “provides protection to a child from five life-threatening diseases: Diphtheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Hepatitis B and Hib.”
The infants can receive pentavalent vaccine as early as six weeks old. Meanwhile, the DTaP vaccine is to be given to pregnant mothers at 27th week and 36th week, Villa said.
“Kaning mga bakuna nga atong gihatag is mga routine vaccination ni siya. Preventable ni siya nga disease,” Villa added.
(The vaccines that we are giving are routine vaccinations. This is a preventable disease.)
Villa encouraged that the pregnant mothers at 27 to 36 weeks to be vaccinated because their child could get the “maternal immunity.”
“Dili dali makakuha ang bata sa pertussis if naa pa ang maternal immunity,” Villa said.
(A child cannot get pertussis if there is maternal immunity.)
In the recorded cases in Cebu City, the CCHD’s data revealed that 19 of them were not inoculated with the pentavalent vaccine, including those who died.
READ: Pertussis: 6 deaths due to disease recorded in Central Visayas, says DOH-7
No declaration of outbreak
Villa said that the increasing number of cases was alarming, however, they could not yet announce it as an outbreak because pertussis cases had already been recorded since 2017 where they recorded four suspected cases.
Meanwhile, in 2018, Cebu City had seven suspected cases.
In 2019, the CCHD logged three confirmed cases with one death. In 2020, they recorded only one clinically confirmed case, and in the following year, 2021, they logged two clinically confirmed cases.
In 2023, the CCHD recorded three clinically confirmed cases with one death, and one suspected case.
“Sa pagkakaron, dili sa ta [modeclare og outbreak] kay we are trying to contain, geaddress lang gyud nato kay lisod sad kaayo as of this moment,” Villa said.
(For now, we will not yet [declare an outbreak] because we are trying to contain it, we only addressed this because it is difficult as of this moment.)
Furthermore, Villa said that when CCHD received the report last February, the health department met with the barangay officials, especially the staff in the health centers to discuss the cases of pertussis in Cebu City.
Villa added that the barangays in Cebu City involved in the cases were Mabolo, Pasil, Sawang Calero, Binaliw, Tisa, Suba, and Cogon Pardo.
“Ang among gibuhat is akong gimeet akong mga staff because need namo ni ma address dayon. Instructions were given didto sa atong mga staff sa barangay health centers,” Villa said.
(What we are doing is we meet our staff because we need to really address this right away. Instructions were given there on our staff in barangay health centers.)
She added that they also tackled the availability of the vaccines as well as medicines for the patients suspected of pertussis.
Subsequently, the DOH-7 official said yesterday that pertussis had been highly responsive to antibiotics.
With this, Villa advised that if the child had already experienced the symptoms, the parents or guardians must have them checked at the health centers so the condition would not get worse.
READ: 8M jabs coming as DOH sees more pertussis, measles outbreaks
CCHD initiatives
To address the occurring cases of pertussis, CCHD has also provided the following initiatives:
- Surveillance and monitoring of pertussis cases Index case containment within 50-meter radius
- Catch-up immunization of missed children through defaulter tracking
- Awareness lectures and health information campaign at barangay health center level
- Distribution of IEC (information, education, and communication) materials
Villa assured that the health centers in the city had enough supply of vaccines and she also urged the pregnant mothers to avail of these vaccines for prevention of the disease.
Getting the vaccine from the health centers is free, but to those who would opt to get it from private hospitals they have to pay a certain amount.
In Central Visayas, there are already 115 reported cases of pertussis from January to March this year, and 42 of which are clinically confirmed.