CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — The country’s measles, rubella, and polio outbreak has been partly driven by distrust of vaccines.
With this, Department of Health (DOH) Region 3 renewed its call to parents and caregivers to have their children vaccinated amid the upcoming Measles, Rubella, and Oral Polio Vaccine Supplementary Immunization Activity (MR-OPV SIA).
DOH Region 3 Medical Program Coordinator on Immunization Janet Miclat emphasized that with the current threat of the COVID-19, it is equally important to have children protected from vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, rubella, and polio.
“Not having them vaccinated will pose a greater risk to them aside from COVID-19. Having fear to have our children vaccinated will make them unprotected from the escalating cases we are seeing. We cannot prevent the disease if we are unable to vaccinate them,” she said.
The SIA aims to illicit the herd immunity response and prevent the spread of the infectious diseases in the fragile community that is the children.
In addition, MR-OPV SIA 2021 targets to provide 5.1 million measles and rubella vaccines, and more than 900,000 oral polio vaccines in Central Luzon.
“Our campaign is to provide additional doses of protection to our children. They will be vaccinated regardless of immunization status, whether they are previously vaccinated with MR-OPV or not. These vaccines are similar with what is being given in the routine immunization,” Miclat explained.
The target is to vaccinate not lower than 95 percent of the total population of children 9 months-5 years old for measles and rubella; and 0-5 years old for polio.
Moreover, DOH explained that the SIA will be done in fixed posts such as barangay health centers during the whole month of February.
“We will not do it on a house-to-house basis. We will be using injectable vaccines which is the MR vaccine, so we need to ensure that the required temperature of the vaccines is kept. We know that we have a very warm climate. We will do it in fixed places, following a staggered scheduling, which has been planned with the local government units,” she furthered.
DOH ensures that precautionary control measures will still be observed during the campaign to prevent the transmission of COVID-19.
Also, the agency assures the public that there are no recorded adverse reactions to the vaccines.
“We do surveillance during and after our vaccination campaigns. We only recorded minor reactions such as pain or redness in the vaccinated area, and low-grade fever. These are temporary and mild, and normal reactions of the body to say that the vaccine is in effect,” Miclat stated.
DOH confirmed a total of 17 polio cases in the country as of February 2020, with the most recent from a one-year-old boy from Cabanatuan City. –Jag Lyra D. Costamero