By Raymart Escopel
ILOILO City – The Department of Health (DOH) in Western Visayas remains confident they can cover 95 percent of children’s population aged below five years old, a week after it kicked off its campaign for Measles-Rubella and oral polio mass immunization.
Bad weather and delay in reporting to far-flung areas are some of the considered factors for the failure in reaching the Department’s projected target, said DOH-6 Regional Director Marlyn Convocar.
Despite encountering the said problems, Convocar noted that Western Visayas is one of the regions which registered the highest percentage of population reached.
As of Sept. 8, DOH-6 has already covered 22 percent of children below five years old for the Measles-Rubella and a registered 21 percent target population for the oral polio vaccine.
Convocar stressed how important it is for children to be vaccinated as cases of measles in the region gradually increase.
Furthermore, she cited that from Jan. 1 to Aug. 30 of this year, the Department has already recorded 224 cases, 415 percent higher compared to a year ago’s record in the same period which only listed 54 cases.
Among the six provinces and two highly urbanized cities that compose the region, only Iloilo City has reached the target for the first week of the mass immunization campaign. According to DOH-6 data, as of Sept. 8, Iloilo City has covered 32 percent of children below five years old for the Measles-Rubella vaccine and 21 percent for the Oral Polio vaccine.
Iloilo City Health Officer Dr. Mae Delmo credited the unity and cooperation of the stakeholders as well as the help of the local government units (LGUs) and health officers for the success of the campaign.
For the whole region, DOH-6 targets to cover 862,969 children aged 9 months to five years old for measles-rubella vaccination and 1 million children below five years old and below for oral polio vaccination.
For the nationwide scope, the target is 11 million children for measles-rubella vaccination and 13 million for oral polio vaccination.
The said campaign started on Sept. 1 and will end on Sept. 30. At the end of the campaign, DOH targets to cover at least 95 percent of the total target population.
The mass immunization campaign aims to interrupt measles and rubella virus transmission; protect against spread of imported wild poliovirus in view of country’s risk status; and link the mass immunization to routine immunization by identifying high risk communities for routine vaccination using the ‘Reaching Every Purok’ strategy./PN
