Hundreds of people are believed to have the measles in the Philippines, a health official there tells CNN.
As of Wednesday there were at least 861 suspected cases of measles in the Manila area alone, CNN reported.
Department of Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo told the media the number is “quite high,” but doctors are now responding to the outbreak.
Domingo believes more people there are choosing to not vaccinate, contributing to the rise in measles cases. Millions of children in the Philippines remain unvaccinated against multiple diseases due to an overall fear of vaccinations, health officials say.
In 2016 the country dealt with controversy over a national immunization program launched to fight dengue, a mosquito-borne viral infection. At the time the maker of the vaccine Dengvaxia warned parents of potential side effects, causing a scare across the nation.
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Some parents claimed their children died after they were inoculated, although the drug’s France-based maker said there were no confirmed deaths as a result of the vaccine.
The scare led to a drop in immunization coverage for multiple diseases in the Philippines.