DOH launches anti-polio campaign in Negros Oriental

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Health officially launched yesterday in Dumaguete City and Negros Oriental province its nationwide polio eradication campaign, with the use of the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) to be administered by trained health workers through intramuscular injection.

Health Secretary Janet Garin told the more than 1,500 health workers and local officials that the Philippines is still a high-risk country for polio importation.

This has been due to the country’s highly migratory population; presence of numerous airports, seaports and other ports of entry, including areas with low immunization coverage; incomplete immunization of children; and inadequate reporting of cases, said Garin.

Former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, who also attended the event, called for continued vigilance against polio, and that the vaccination campaign must go on, even if the country had maintained its polio-free status since 2000.

In his message to a huge crowd of health workers at the Negros Oriental Convention Center, Roxas said there is no limitation as to what a country, a society and people can do if they are united towards a common good, under the Daang Matuwid and the universal health care program of President Benigno Aquino III over the last five years.

Under the UHC, every Filipino, including indigents, has been treated as equals with funding sourced from the Sin Tax Law, said Roxas.

Also present during the launching program were Senator Franklin Drilon, Negros Oriental Representatives George Arnaiz (2nd district) and Henry Pryde Teves (3rd dist.), former 1st district representative Jocelyn Limkaichong, Provincial Board members, and mayors.

Governor Roel Degamo and Vice Governor Edward Mark Macias were happy that the DOH chose Negros Oriental as its launching site of the anti-polio national campaign launching.  (FREEMAN)