Iloilo 1st district Rep. Janette Garin (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

House Deputy Majority Leader Iloilo 1st district Rep. Janette Garin says Filipino parents must break their families free from the chains of vaccine hesitancy by having their kids inoculated. 

Garin made the call Wednesday, April 17 following the report of the Department of Health (DOH) that 1,477 cases of pertussis were recorded nationwide from January 1 to April 6. A total of 63 deaths related to the illness have also been tallied. 

The former DOH secretary-turned-lawmaker noted that vaccine hesitancy was the root cause of the rising number pertussis and measles cases in the country. 

Garin said this vaccine scare among Filipinos "was posed during the leadership of ex-health secretary Francisco Duque III". 

“Bakit sa buong mundo ang Pilipinas lang nagkaroon ng pertussis outbreak? At bakit ‘yung polio bumalik? Bakit noong mga nakaraang taon grabe ang mga namamatay sa measles? This is all because of vaccine hesitancy,” Garin, also a doctor, said. 

(Why is it that, in the entire world, only the Philippines had a pertussis outbreak? And why did Polio return? And why did measles claim a lot of lives during the past years?) 

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https://mb.com.ph/2024/4/1/previous-admin-to-blame-for-pertussis-outbreak-as-vaccine-hesitancy-persists-says-garin

"Ngayon, measles outbreak ulit sa ibang panig ng Pilipinas at patuloy na may mga namamatay at yung iba naman ay nagkakaroon permanent injury like encephalopathy and blindness," she added. 

(Now there are measles outbreaks in different parts of the country, the deaths continue while those who survive suffer from permanent injury like encephalopathy and blindness.) 

The country is expecting three million pentavalent or 5-in-1 vaccine doses by June, Garin said. The government is also securing Diphtheria, Pertussis, and Tetanus (DPT) doses.