House Deputy Majority Leader Janette Garin on Wednesday urged parents to have their children properly inoculated as the cases of pertussis in the country continue to increase.

Garin, a former Health Secretary, made the call after the Department of Health logged 1,477 cases of pertussis with 63 deaths nationwide from Jan. 1 to April 6 this year.

She said “vaccine hesitancy” was the root cause of the rising number of cases of pertussis and measles due to the vaccine scare.

“Bakit sa buong mundo ang Pilipinas lang ang nagkaroon ng pertussis outbreak? At bakit ‘yung polio bumalik? Bakit noong mga nakaraang taon grabe ang mga namamatay sa measles (Why only the Philippines has the pertussis outbreak? And why this polio is back? Why in the past years many died from measles?). This is all because of vaccine hesitancy,” Garin said.

Garin also noted a measles outbreak in some areas of the country that killed many people.

She said the DOH leadership in the past administration failed to address the vaccine hesitancy.

The country is expecting 3 million pentavalent or 5-in-1 vaccine doses by June, and is now securing diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus (DPT) doses. (PNA)