DOH confirms Philippine’s 4th polio case

MANILA,Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) has confirmed the country’s fourth case of vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) involving a three-year-old girl from Sultan Kudarat.

According to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, the stool samples taken from the victim tested positive for polio when examined by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.

The findings were confirmed by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases of Japan.

Duque has reminded parents and guardians to submit their children below five years old to anti-polio vaccination when the DOH holds the next round of door-to-door immunization in Mindanao from Nov. 25 to Dec. 8.

“We can defeat polio but we need the public to trust and actively participate in our immunization program,” he said.

In an interview, DOH Undersecretary Eric Domingo noted the girl was from Sultan Kudarat but she stayed in Datu Paglas in Maguindanao for a month-long vacation before she manifested polio symptoms.

Domingo added that because of this, they could not determine where she contracted the poliovirus.

“We are now doing vaccination activities in both areas to make sure that the children there are protected against polio. This is ahead of scheduled vaccination activities on Nov. 25,” he added.

The girl was found infected with Type 2 vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV), which was also detected in the three-year-old girl from Lanao del Sur who became the country’s first polio case after 19 years last September.

He added the girl had not been vaccinated against polio.

The DOH is aiming to vaccinate 95 percent of all targeted children to achieve herd immunity, a condition wherein even the unvaccinated kids are protected.

VDPV is defined by Atlanta-based Center for Disease Prevention and Control as a strain of weakened poliovirus that has “changed over time and behaves more like a wild or natural occurring virus.”

The two other polio cases documented by the DOH are a five-year-boy from Laguna and a four-year-old girl from Datu Piang in Maguindanao.