Protect 18 million children from measles. This was the aim of the "Ligtas Tigdas" (Save from Measles) campaign of the Department of Health (DOH).

After a month-long campaign, 16.6 million children had been vaccinated. This indicates vaccination coverage of 90.2 per cent (as of 12 March 2004 ).

Working with local governments, the DOH deployed 40,000 teams of community health workers and volunteers all over the country in February. Fondly called " Bakuna -doors" (Vaccine-givers), health workers and volunteers leapt from one house to another and stayed at health centers to vaccinate children aged nine months to less than eight years old against measles. They also gave vitamin A drops to boost the children's immune system.

"Children have to be reached wherever they are," says Dr. Nicholas Alipui, UNICEF country representative. Alipui joined DOH Secretary Manuel Dayrit at the campaign's launch in Manila , Cebu and Davao . "The strategy for the elimination of measles is exemplary," cites Alipui. The UNICEF head gave ceremonial booster shots to children in Sta. Cruz, Manila .

In other areas, health workers also visited schools and social gatherings like weddings, baptismal ceremonies, and funeral wakes to reach children in the target age group.

Dayrit says that every missed child is a failure of coverage, and a cluster of missed children is a measles outbreak waiting to happen. "We are not leaving any stone unturned just to be sure that we have vaccinated not one less," he stresses.

In the 1980s, between 5,000 to 12,000 children died of measles each year. This decreased to 1,000 to 3,500 deaths in the 1990s. From 1998 to 2002, there was an average of 350 deaths from measles every year.

Follow-up visits for two million "missed children" are now underway. A national review of the campaign was set in April.