Anti-cervical cancer vaccines returned to Capitol

Health officials at the Capitol were alarmed over reports that 1,000 vaccines for anti-cervical cancer were not distributed to beneficiaries in two towns and one city following the refusal of parents to have it administered to their daughters.

Child Care Nurse Coordinator Maria Lorraine Gimperoso of the Provincial Health Office (PHO) said the vaccines were a second dose of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) for Grade 4 female students or girls aged 9 to 13 years old.

“The problem was there were a lot of respondents (whose parents) refused,” she said.

Based on last Wednesday’s inventory, rural health units (RHUs) of Dumanjug and Consolacion towns and Argao City returned 1,000 vaccines to the PHO.

The number is a fraction of 24,000 vaccines distributed by the PHO.

Gimperoso said the second dose of the vaccine should be given before it expires in June. The first dose was given last November.

Gimperoso said they can only perform the vaccination to children with the parent’s consent.

Provincial Health Officer Dr. Rene Catan said the parents were fearful of vaccines in the wake of the Dengvaxia case.

“Because of the Dengvaxia controversy, other programs have been affected. We fear that our immunization program would be compromised,” Catan said in Cebuano.

Last March 28, a three-month-old baby girl of Tuburan town died due to measles while her mother, who also acquired measles, had recovered.

PHO records showed that the mother wasn’t vaccinated from measles as a child.

The anti-measles vaccines are administered to children aged nine months old and above.