ILOILO City – The Provincial Health Office (PHO) is confident it will reach its target number of measles-vaccinated children in Iloilo.
“As of March 14, we have a total of 44,353 [immunized children],” said PHO chief Dr. Patricia Grace Trabado.
This is 30.66 percent of 144,660 children aged six to 59 months old that the PHO eyes to immunize.
The deadline for the target is on March 31 – the reason that the PHO and the Department of Health in Region 6 are doubling their efforts.
“Dapat lab-uton ang 144,669 children nga gin-target sa province. Amo na dapat nga ma-double time,” added Trabado.
The PHO chief said additional deployment of nurses to Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas will be a big help in their massive immunization program.
Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas have households far from each other, making the door-to-door immunization hard for PHO personnel.
The PHO is prioritizing children aged six to 59 months old – regardless of their immunization status.
The second priority are 21,929 Grade 1 and 18,274 Grade 7 pupils who have yet to receive anti-measles shots.
As of March 14 – the latest update the PHO has – 7,906 (36 percent) Grade 1 pupils and 4,791 (26.22 percent) Grade 7 pupils have been immunized.
Despite having secured parental consent, PHO personnel still have a hard time getting some pupils vaccinated due to their fear of needles.
The third priority of PHO’s immunization program are health workers. The fourth priority are people who had close contact with suspected measles patients.
Grade 2 and Grade 6 pupils, meanwhile, are the fifth priority.
Adults who want to get anti-measles shot are PHO’s sixth priority. But they could only get immunized if there are still available vaccines, said Trabado./PN
