TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday, April 5, confirmed the first case of pertussis or whooping cough in Eastern Visayas.
This was a three-month-old male infant from Pastrana, Leyte, who has recovered and discharged from the hospital.
The DOH-8 logged 31 suspected cases of pertussis in the region for Morbidity Week 1 to14 (January 1 to April 6).
Eighteen were males aged 12-months and below and 13 aged six-months and below.
Sixty-one or 19 cases are from Leyte province, 19 percent or six come from Eastern Samar, 13 percent or four from Tacloban City, and six percent or two from Southern Leyte.
Most of these suspected cases have not been vaccinated against pertussis. Six of them have recovered or discharged.
The DOH-8 has issued public health advisories regarding the Heightened Surveillance and Monitoring of Vaccine Preventable Diseases and Intensification of Routine Immunization to prevent the disease from spreading.
The agency has sent samples to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in Muntinlupa City to test suspected cases.