BACOLOD CITY – A total of 387,557 children below 5 years old in Western Visayas were vaccinated against polio from March to July, data released by the regional health office on Friday showed.
The figure consists of 252,524 children aged 24 months to 59 months, and 135,033 aged zero to 23 months covered by the five-month bivalent oral polio vaccine intensive catch-up immunization and supplemental immunization activity in the provinces of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Iloilo, Guimaras, and Negros Occidental, along with the highly urbanized cities of Bacolod and Iloilo.
Department of Health (DOH) 6 (Western Visayas) Director Adriano Suba-an said vaccines play an integral role in the community as they protect against vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) that could affect one person to another.
“The agency conducted various activities to address the increasing unimmunized and under-vaccinated children,” he added.
Polio, a highly infectious viral disease that can lead to a serious, crippling, and potentially fatal condition, largely affects children below 5 years of age.
For the catch-up and supplemental immunization, the DOH-6 conducted risk communication and community engagement training for health education and promotion officers and barangay health workers for social mobilization.
Health education and promotion officers were also trained on social behavioral change on immunization to address specific behaviors that could hinder parents’ and caregivers’ decisions in availing of vaccination services.
“With the full resumption of face-to-face classes, school learners are at high risk of contracting VPDs. In this regard, the DOH shall provide technical directions later this year for the implementation of the school-based immunization,” Suba-an said.
He added that as the DOH awaits the arrival of vaccines in the country, “a big catch-up immunization is being planned by the central office.”
“This is to bridge the gap between the emergence of both small- and large-scale measles and pertussis outbreaks resulting from low immunization coverage,” the DOH-6 official said. (PNA)
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