Philippines To Vaccinate Millions As Polio Virus Returns
POLIO VIRUS – The Philippines is gearing up to vaccinate millions of children against polio to put a stop to the outbreak of a disease.
The polio virus was believed to have been eradicated two decades ago according to officials. However, the virus has recently resurfaced.
This time, a 5 year-old boy in Laguna tested positive for the virus. This was the second case this week after a 3 year-old girl was discovered to be infected as well.
However these cases were not isolated. The 3 year-old girl was in a province about 1,400 km away.
Department of Health undersecretary, Rolando Enrique Domingo stated that the polio vaccinations happens all year round. However, the coverage dropped for the past 5 years, he added.
He then said that they have learned their lesson. Afterwards, he stated that it was time to move on and start vaccinating all kids.
Domingo then added that they need to make sure to sustain the vaccinations every year. Vaccination teams aimed to administer polio drops to children younger than 5, he added.
At the moment there is no cure for the polio virus. However, it can be prevented with vaccines.
The virus spreads rapidly among children. This is increased in unsanitary conditions or underdeveloped areas where healthcare access is limited.
According to straitstimes, the Philippines has had trouble convincing parents to vaccinate their children. This was due to the recent dengue immunization program using Dengvaxia.
In lieu of this, a vaccine campaign had begun in August in Manila. This campaign would be expanded to cover more than 5 million children nationwide in the following year according to Health Secretary Francisco Duque.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the last known case of polio in the Philippines was in 1993. With this, Domingo added that the Philippines is only at 70% immunization, below the recommended 95%.
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