ILOILO City – Personnel of the City Health Office (CHO) are conducting house-to-house visits until Nov. 22 to administer measles rubella and oral polio vaccine (OPV) to children.
If needed, they would extend the drive up to December just to make sure their target age group – six-month to five-year-old children – is 100 percent covered, said Dr. Bernard Caspe, city health officer.
If parents refuse, he said the CHO personnel explain hard the measles rubella and OPV immunizations are different from the controversial Dengvaxia vaccine.
“This is proven safe and effective,” he stressed.
Parents have been urged to cooperate in this supplemental activity on measles rubella (MR) and OPV with the first phase roll out in 25 areas in Western Visayas, particularly in this city.
Dr. Renilyn Reyes, head of the Family, Health and Nutrition Cluster of the Department of Health (DOH) Region 6, said Western Visayas has 119 measles cases as of October this year.
Negros Occidental had 33 cases. Bacolod City had 29. Iloilo province had 21. Antique had 16.
Iloilo City had 10 while Capiz had six. Aklan had three while Guimaras had one.
Last year, Western Visayas had not recorded a single measles case.
Around 50 percent of the cases were children below five years old.
Also, 61 percent of those who acquired measles were not immunized, Reyes said.
She said measles is a simple disease. However, its complications may cause the hospitalization of the child due to pneumonia and diarrhea.
It may cause convulsion due to the infection in the central nervous system. Worse, it can lead to blindness or even death.
“The best thing is that it can be prevented through vaccination,” said Reyes.
The “ToDOH Ligtas sa Polio at Tigdas” program covers six-month to five-year-old children regardless of their immunization status.
Reyes said Iloilo City is included in the first phase of the activity which covers places with confirmed cases. The target is to cover a total of 339,183 children.
The second phase, which will be administered during the first and second quarter of 2019, will cover 258,443 children in 42 areas or those that are considered as bordering areas or with highest number of “missed” children. (PNA)
