There Are Almost 3 Million Kids That Are Not Immunized In The Country
2.9 MILLIOIN FILIPINO KIDS – The United Nations Children Fund or UNICEF revealed recently that at least 2.9 million Filipino kids are not immunized.
Although public hospitals, clinics and health centers offer free basic immunization to children five years old and under, millions of kids still did not get immunized.
Meanwhile, UNICEF reported that there is decrease in measles vaccinations in the Philippines. From 88 percent in 2013, the number dropped to 73 percent in 2017.
Failure to get immunized of almost 3 million Filipino kids makes them prone to measles and several other dangerous and even life-threatening diseases.
This is according to an article from Philstar. According to the article,
UNICEF declared last year that the measles immunization coverage in the country was below 70 percent. A lot lesser than the recommended 95 percent.
There were almost 30,000 measles cases and 389 deaths recorded in the country since January.
According to health experts, fatalities caused by measles could’ve been avoided if only there was an easy access to vaccines.
Some of the factors pointed out by the UNICEF that affected the number of vaccinated kids were “Public hesitancy, vaccine stock-outs, the lack of aptly trained health workers and accessibility of hard-to-reach areas…”
These, according to them, increases the possibility of children catching diseases. It could also lead to disease outbreaks and put children’s lives at risk.
The also explained that vaccinations are the safest and most effective way to prevent these diseases and save children’s lives.
Currently, UNICEF is in a collaborative work with Department of Health, World Health Organization and other health agencies to promote the good cause of immunization.
Vaccinations helped Philippines get rid of the threat of polio and maternal/neonatal tetani in the past. This goes to show that vaccines are indeed safe and they work.
That is all there is to it, at least for now. We’ll post updates as soon as we got them.
