Mindanao anti-polio vaccine drive starts

MANILA, Philippines — As the country strives to contain the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19, the Department of Health (DOH) yesterday started the mass anti-polio vaccination campaign for children in Mindanao.

This developed as the country’s vaccination rate for polio dropped to a record low of seven percent during the first quarter of the year, the DOH said.

The campaign, titled Sabayang Patak Kontra Polio, is being implemented with the help of the World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund.

“Polio is a vaccine-preventable disease and we cannot let our gains over the years go to waste by deprioritizing our polio response,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said.

The program covers children below five years old.

In select areas of Mindanao, children below 10 years will also be given anti-polio drops.

Meanwhile, children below five years old in Central Luzon will be vaccinated in a phased approached, according to the DOH. The program started yesterday.

The same vaccination program will be launched in the provinces of Cavite, Laguna and Rizal in August.

“Continuous implementation of polio response amid the present health crisis we are facing is important as this will prevent not only the debilitating effects of the disease, but also interrupt the transmission during a pandemic,” Duque said.

From January to March and toward the beginning of May, the vaccination rate went down to seven percent due to the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

Prior to the ECQ, the vaccination rate was at 16 percent.

The government targets to achieve 23 to 24 percent per quarter so the vaccination rate will be at 95 percent or higher by the end of the year.

In September last year, the DOH announced the resurgence of polio in the country after a three-year-old girl in Lanao del Sur contracted the virus.

Fifteen more children were infected by the disease after the first case was reported.