At least 215 people have died from measles in the Philippines and more than 13,000 people had contracted the airborne disease since Jan. 1 this year, the Philippine Department of Health (DOH) said on Friday.

Between Jan. 1 and Feb. 26, 2019, the DOH said 13,723 measles cases including 215 deaths were officially reported nationwide through routine surveillance of the DOH's Epidemiology Bureau.

Most measles cases are from the northern and central Philippines.

According to the report from the DOH, most affected age group was between 1 and 4 years old with 4,190 cases or 31 percent of the total cases, followed by patients less than 9 months old with 3,555 cases or 26 percent.

DOH also said that 176 persons or 79 percent of those who died from measles as well as 8,549 people or 62 percent of those who contracted the disease were not vaccinated.

On Feb. 6, the DOH declared a "measles outbreak" in Metro Manila. On Feb. 7, the DOH announced that the measles outbreak had spread to more areas in the Philippine main Luzon island, Western Visayas and Central Visayas in the central Philippines.

Achyut Shrestha, a medical officer at the World Health Organization Office Philippines, blamed the outbreak on the low coverage of routine measles immunization in the Philippines in the last two years causing a buildup of people susceptible to the disease.

The low immunization coverage is due to many factors, he added, including accessibility to some villages making it difficult for health workers to administer the vaccination.

"Parents are still not entirely convinced of the immunization services. They are not going to the clinic enough so they are not availing the services that are there for free. The Dengue vaccine controversy that happened last year compounded the issue," Shrestha told Xinhua, adding "it created even more hesitancy from the parents' side."

Measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by a virus. It is transferred from person-to-person by sneezing, coughing, and close personal contact. Its signs and symptoms include cough, runny nose, red eyes or conjunctivitis, fever, skin rashes lasting for more than three days.

The disease's complications included diarrhea, middle ear infection, pneumonia or infection of the lungs, encephalitis (swelling of the brain), malnutrition, the blindness which may lead to death.

The Philippine government is advising the public, especially the mothers, to bring their children at the first sign of fever to the nearest health facility for prompt treatment and proper case management.