Infants need to get anti-hepa B vaccination - experts

MANILA, Philippines – Cancer experts underscored yesterday the need to submit infants to anti-hepatitis B vaccination to minimize liver cancer, one of the three preventable types of cancer.

According to Dr. George Eufemio, president of the Philippine Cancer Society (PCS), vaccinating infants is better than curing cancer because it is cheaper and it would assuage the burden on the family.

Eufemio noted there is an existing law that requires the vaccination of children but it has not been fully implemented.

“In government hospitals, it’s free. Newborns are given their first dosage against hepatitis B,” he claimed. But the babies are supposed to be brought back to the hospital for their second and third vaccination and this does not happen.

Under Republic Act 7846 or the Hepatitis B Immunization Act, it is required for infants and children below eight years old to be vaccinated against the disease.

Eufemio added the first vaccination would go to waste if a child is not given two booster shots.

But even if the follow-up vaccinations can be acquired for free, PCS learned that many children are not brought back to hospital because of “lack of money for transportation fares.”

He maintained that the government can conduct immunization at the barangay level to reach more children.

But former PCS president Dr. Antonio Villalon said the group is “advocating” for the passage of Senate Bill 2012, authored by Sen. Pia Cayetano, which seeks the mandatory vaccination of all infants after birth.

Villalon added that the bill, if passed, could effectively prevent liver cancer in the country.

The bill is expected to produce a generation of Filipinos free from hepatitis B and liver cancer.

Aside from liver cancer, the other types of cancer that are preventable are lung and cervical cancer, which can be arrested by quitting smoking and by immunization against human papilloma virus, respectively.