Former health secretary and House Deputy Majority Leader Janette Garin urged the parents to free themselves from the reluctance of vaccination and have their kids inoculated as the cases of pertussis continue to increase.

Garin made the call following the report of the Department of Health (DOH) that there are 1,477 cases of pertussis nationwide from January 1 to April 6 and 63 deaths related to the illness.

The lawmaker pointed out that vaccine hesitancy was the root cause of the rising number of cases of pertussis and measles due to the vaccine scare which 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.

“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.

“My apologies, I call it actually the Duque-Ubial legacy dahil noong kapanahunan na sila ay nasa Department of Health at hindi nila pinigilan na magkaroon ng spread ng maraming fake news,” the Iloilo First District Representative said.

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