An anti measles campaign 'Iligtas sa Tigdas ang Pinas' has been launched by The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday. The month long door-to-door measles vaccination campaign, which runs from April 4 to May 4, will vaccinate 18 million kids on a national scale.

The Health Secretary, Dr. Enrique Ona said that this is the first vaccination campaign on the national scale after 2007. Around 95% kids, aged nine months to eight years old, will be vaccinated in the country.

He added that measles is a communicable disease and kids who will not be vaccinated have higher risk of scattering the virus.

Ona said that only 87% children were immunized in 2007 campaign, but now the aim is to reduce the number measles cases in comparison to the cases of year 2007.

The DOH National Epidemiology Center revealed that approximately 2,000 measles cases have been found in first three months of 2011, while five deaths have been reported.

On the other hand, in National Capital Region, which is Manila, Quezon City and Caloocan, around 300 cases with measles were recorded from January to March 2011.

The index of measles cases have been raised in last three months, from 453 cases in 2007 to 1,418 cases in 2010.