Measles in the Philippines: The Elite are Equally to Blame

After ravaging communities and civilizations for centuries, the measles virus was finally brought under control with the development in 1963 of an effective vaccine in the United States. Measles since then has remained largely checked by sustained containment around the world with the exception of developing countries.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in numerous developing nations in Africa and Asia measles is still a serious health threat to millions of people. Over 95% of deaths caused by measles in these countries are correlated with these nations’ depressed incomes per capita and deficient health systems.

One such country is the Philippines, where an upsurge of measles cases has grown to 11,000 nationwide with nearly 200 of them leading to death as of the writing of this piece.

What is especially vexing in how the measles epidemic is being fought in the Philippines is that the Department of Health (DOH) there asserts that they have secured the necessary supplies of measles vaccine for everyone ranging from infants to the elderly.

But despite the positive news on the supply front, the DOH lamented that vaccination rates have been falling. The reason being that there has been a great deal of what the department calls “vaccine hesitancy.”

What does the DOH mean by “vaccine hesitancy?” It basically refers to an unwillingness on the part of adults to receive vaccinations, or in the case of parents to have their children vaccinated. Of the major threats to health around the world, the WHO says that vaccine hesitancy belongs on the 2019 top ten list of them.

What precipitates vaccine hesitancy? The idea is associated with the relationship between debate in the public sphere and the realms of the law, ethics, and health care. In the Philippines, vaccine hesitancy has been borne out of the Dengvaxia vaccine scare which misled thousands into avoiding being immunized by the drug. This man-made impediment—as compared to a biological one—has led to multiple upsurges in measles cases.

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) also attributed the rise in measles cases in the Philippines to the “failure” of the country’s health system. Imagine, we are well into the 21st century where medical treatments and other related-technologies have been developed to unprecedented levels for the benefit of the entire world.

And yet in the Philippines, just the fundamental necessity of properly and efficiently distributing the measles vaccine to treatment centers has been nothing short of turbulent.

As a prospective “emerging economy” the Philippines should have suppressed measles nationwide by now. Instead, the country bears the ignominy of being unable to provide adequate health care to most of its citizens.

The Philippines joins other impoverished societies in Africa, Asia, and South America in that regard. UNICEF declared that of the top ten nations in the world with the highest rise in measles cases between 2017 and 2018, the Philippines ranked second only behind the Ukraine.

As the government agency directly in charge of vaccine disbursement and application, at least some of the blame must lie with the Philippine DOH.

But equal accountability, perhaps ultimately so, also belongs to the Philippine elite. It is the elite, both the economic and political, and their exploitative and monopolistic conduct that has grossly forsaken health care in the country in general as it pertains to the lower classes, the class most in need of it.

That the Philippine health system has been able to evolve to the stage it is at now in the 21st century—considering how the elites have effectively gutted vital time and resources for affordable universal health care over many decades out of sheer self-interest—is a testament to the medical professionals and socially-conscious Filipinos who have fought heart and soul for the provision of adequate health care for the underprivileged. These individuals are the real health care heroes of the country.

The economic and political elites should follow their noble example. What the economic and political elites too often forget is that they too are citizens of the Philippine republic. It is their patriotic duty to contribute to the greater welfare of the Philippines and to stop treating the country as if it were their own private fiefdom to do as they please.

In and of itself, there is nothing wrong with being rich and powerful. But there is plenty wrong with being rich and powerful but unempathetic towards others and mercenary to boot.

How much longer must the powers-that-be in the Philippines continue to spawn the socio-economic and political conditions that deprive the Filipino people of the proper health care they so deserve in this day and age?

ALLEN GABORRO