IMMUNIZATION FOR KIDS. The campaign message of the Department of Health (DOH) to encourage the public to participate in the month-long measles-rubella and oral polio vaccination. The month-long immunization will start on May 2, 2023 and will cover 471,472 children in Eastern Visayas. (DOH image)
TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Health in Eastern Visayas (DOH-8) is intensifying its campaign to administer over a million doses of measles-rubella and oral polio vaccines to preschool children in May.
Since last month, DOH-8 personnel have been on the ground to capacitate the region’s local healthcare workers down to the community level through a series of microplanning and preparatory workshops in the different provinces.
From April 11 to 19, the DOH-8 officials also met with stakeholders for a series of regional onboarding of stakeholders to solicit support for the upcoming month-long supplemental immunization activities.
“As a symbolic multisectoral undertaking, local chief executives, municipal health officers, representatives from partner agencies, organizations, media partners, and medical societies partook in a pledge of commitment ceremony to signify their support to the campaign," DOH-8 information officer Jelyn Lopez-Malibago said in a phone interview Thursday.
Elena Villarosa, DOH-8 national immunization program manager, said the month-long immunization to start on May 2 will cover 471,472 children (9 months to 50 months old) for measles and 550,559 children (0 to 59 months old) for polio.
“There is no treatment for polio, rubella, and measles. Vaccination is the only effective way to prevent the possibility of an outbreak,” Villarosa said, adding that vaccination will be done in health centers and in house-to-house setting.
Measles, one of the most contagious diseases worldwide, is characterized by high-grade fever, rashes, cough, sore eyes, and runny nose with complications that could lead to pneumonia, blindness, severe diarrhea, swelling of the brain, and even death.
Polio, on the other hand, is a potentially debilitating disease that causes fever, neck stiffness, and muscle weakness, and can eventually result in lifelong paralysis. (PNA)
