Measles epidemic in Davao City: 2017-2018

ABSTRACT

@#Diseases of epidemic potential are on surveillance using the Philippine Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (PIDSR) system maintained by the Department of Health (DOH) regional offices. Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) contributes data to this system through the Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit of Region XI (RESU XI), which releases summary surveillance reports on a weekly basis. The report itself is a count of patients with disease signs or symptoms, suspected disease conditions, specific clinical diagnoses, or laboratory-confirmed diagnoses. Per DOH policy, a single notification of a measles diagnosis needs confirmation and investigation. An increasing number of cases warrants the initiation of outbreak response immunizations (ORI) by the local government, even before an epidemic is formally declared. Serologic confirmation of measles is performed at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa, Alabang.