DOH to tap GIs in anti-polio drive

American military forces may soon be undertaking "assault" operations in other far-flung areas in the country — not to fight Muslim extremist rebels but to counter polio.

The Department of Health (DOH) announced yesterday the possibility of tapping the services of American military troops participating in the ongoing military exercises for the all-out war against polio, a re-emerging national health problem.

Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit said the US Embassy has offered the services of US military medical personnel for the government’s anti-polio campaign.

"If there is an opportunity for us to support your inoculation program, just let us know," the health secretary quoted US Embassy charge d’affaires Robert Fitts as saying. The American official lauded the DOH for its earnest efforts to fully eradicate polio.

Polio, an acute food and water-borne disease that could cause paralysis, was supposed to have been eradicated in the country in 1997, and the World Health Organization (WHO) even certified the country as "polio-free" in 2000.

But three polio cases broke out last year, reportedly caused by a mutant strain of polio virus. This prompted the DOH to intensify immunization of children five years and below.

Children living in densely populated areas and in places with poor sanitation are at higher risk of acquiring the disease. Based on DOH records, 98.3 percent of the 12 million targeted children susceptible to polio had been immunized during the first leg of the campaign last Feb 2 to 8.

Dayrit said the DOH welcomed the offer of assistance of the US troops, particularly at this time when the government is on the last stretch of the second leg of the anti-polio drive.

Reports submitted by DOH regional offices all over the country, he said, showed they were on their way to surpassing the rate posted in the first leg of the "Balik Patak Kontra Polio."

Dayrit also said the earthquake that rocked Mindanao on Wednesday and the storm that threatened the Bicol Region early this week did not affect the administration of the follow-up vaccinations.

The health chief was in Dipolog City and Zamboanga City on Thursday with officials from the WHO, Unicef and Rotary International to monitor the vaccination efforts of local DOH personnel and volunteers in Western Mindanao.

"We are proud to say the earthquake did not affect the operations in any way. We are hoping that we can surpass our performance during the first leg of the campaign, and even hit our target of 100 percent immunization this time," Dayrit said in an interview.

Officially, the second leg of the campaign ended yesterday, but Dayrit said vaccinators would still continue their operations until they are reasonably sure they have given the vaccines to all the targeted children.

Dayrit’s optimism was matched by Dr. Paolo Froes, WHO medical official and observer of the polio campaign, who described the government’s immunization efforts as an "achievement" in government mobilization of its personnel and resources for the success of the undertaking.

According to Froes, the WHO had some 25 evaluators checking on the coverage of the door-to-door immunizations who all reported high immunization rates in the different provinces all over the country.

Dayrit remarked that the anti-polio drive had been "blessed" since it started.

The nationwide campaign was conducted by the government after three polio cases surfaced last year in Cagayan de Oro City, Laguna and Cavite. If not acted upon, it would mean the loss of the country’s certified polio-free status.

It was learned that a "weakened" strain of the polio virus in the vaccine administered in the 1990s to children all over the globe mutated and gave rise to a different but still lethal strain of polio virus. — With Rainier Allan Ronda