A 10-year-old girl died of diphtheria last Friday, the country’s health department confirmed today.
The victim was a fourth-grade student at the Jacinto Zamora Elementary School in Pandacan, Manila, who had initially fallen ill with a high fever, developing accompanying rashes and mouth sores. Hours later, doctors diagnosed her with the highly communicable disease, according to an ABS-CBN News report.
Muntinlupa’s Research Institute for Tropical Medicine released the lab test results this morning, confirming her earlier diagnosis and that she passed away due to diphtheria, Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo told The Philippine Daily Inquirer.
A day before it was confirmed that diphtheria killed the child, officials from the Manila Health Office vaccinated Pandacan residents against the disease. They also vaccinated the victim’s classmates and teachers, and had their classroom disinfected to prevent the disease from spreading, news television show QRT reported.
Read: Philippines health department says they can get enough vaccines to fight re-emergence of polio
There has been a resurgence in diphtheria cases in the Philippines this year. In a statement released by the Department of Health yesterday, from January to September 2019, there have been 167 diphtheria cases and 40 deaths compared to 122 cases and 30 deaths in the same period in 2018.
Diphtheria can be prevented through the five-shot DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus) vaccine, which could be given to a child from two months old. Experts also recommend getting a booster vaccine from the age of 11.
However, Filipino parents have become increasingly wary of vaccines due to the controversy surrounding Dengvaxia, now banned in the country.
Read: 19 years after being declared eradicated, government says polio is back in the Philippines
The anti-dengue vaccine was included in the government’s health program in 2016 and some 800,000 school children were immunized with it.
However, by 2017 the Public Attorney Office chief Persida Acosta alleged that Dengvaxia had caused hundreds of children to die. It was a claim rejected by many doctors, including Health Secretary Francisco Duque III.
Decreased vaccine coverage across the archipelago has now led to a measles outbreak earlier this year, a national dengue epidemic that began last month, and the return of polio in the Philippines.
Diphtheria is typically spread through coughing and sneezing, although it can be spread by touching an object that has been infected by the bacteria. Its symptoms include lethargy, sore throat, fever, and the appearance of swollen glands in the neck. One in ten patients will die from diphtheria, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
