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BY JESSICA SEGOVIA-YAP, MD
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Saturday. September 16, 2017
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THERE’S been a lot of hullaballoo about Japanese Encephalitis lately. The Department of Health (DOH) has been quite concerned not because of an increase in the number of cases but the panic amongst parents to have their children vaccinated. The vaccine has gone out of stock in some areas in our country.
Although the DOH encourages us to have our kids injected with the vaccine, it does not recommend giving it now because it is the rainy season. Why is this so?
Japanese encephalitis is a mosquito-borne illness. It is transmitted through the bite of a Culex mosquito, a species different from that that causes, say dengue fever, chikungunya or even malaria. Since we all know that these mosquitoes breed in stagnant waters, their number increase during rainy months. Thus, it follows that the incidence of mosquito-borne illnesses also increases (read: rainy season, dengue season).
So if one gets the vaccine now, you cannot be assured that it will be protective already since it will take time for the vaccine to work once it gets into your body through whatever route of administration it is given. Meaning, you are still liable to be infected.
According to DOH, there is no outbreak of Japanese encephalitis in the country. According to their report, the incidence of laboratory-confirmed cases of Japanese encephalitis last month was even lower by 44 percent compared to the same time period last year. Unfortunately, there are nine JE related deaths this year mostly in Luzon. This might be a cause for concern but DOH said that there is no need to worry.
So my advice as well as that of DOH is that you just have to wait for the proper time to have that injection. In the meantime, we all just have to intensify and strengthen our vector control program. Same measures that we practice to prevent dengue outbreaks like eliminating sources of stagnant water, using of mosquito killers and repellants (but please use the safe and natural ones) and of course cleaning our surroundings.
DOH will be coming up with the JE protocol soon and they also plan to introduce JE vaccination among young children next year. I hope that when these have been set in place, it will further decrease the incidence of Japanese encephalitis in our country.
Jessica P. Segovia-Yap, M.D., FPAFP is a Diplomate and Fellow of the Philippine Academy of Family Physicians. She is a practicing Family Medicine Specialist and holds clinic at the Medical Arts Building of Iloilo Mission Hospital. For comments, questions and suggestions, you may email at drjec.is.in@ gmail.com./PN
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