BACOLOD City – The City Health Office (CHO) is being pressed to conduct an intensive information dissemination drive to encourage parents and guardians to have their children inoculated against pertussis or whooping cough.
The city council urged the CHO through a resolution, citing the Department of Health’s (DOH) statement dated March 27, saying that vaccination is a safe and effective measure against the highly infectious disease.
Infants as young as six weeks may already be given this vaccine for free at government health centers, the DOH added. The agency also said that children from one to six years of age may get a booster dose.
On Wednesday, April 3, three more suspected cases of pertussis were recorded in Bacolod City. This is on top of the four suspected cases earlier reported.
Councilor Claudio Puentevella, the city council’s health committee chair, said all three patients are residents of Bacolod City.
The CHO recorded the three new suspected cases on Tuesday, he added.
Samples of the new suspected cases are to be submitted for confirmatory tests at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine of the Department of Health (DOH)-Western Visayas for verification.
Pertussis is a respiratory infection caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis. Pertussis spreads easily from person to person, mainly through droplets produced by coughing or sneezing.
The disease is most dangerous in infants and is a significant cause of disease and death in this age group./PN