Dr. Rosemarie Ouano-Tirado | Rosalie Abatayo
MANDAUE CITY, Cebu —The Mandaue City Health Office (MCHO) launched on Tuesday, February 18, 2020, a door to door anti-polio vaccination for children who missed their doses of the anti-polio vaccine.
Dr. Rosemarie Ouano-Tirado, city health officer, said that their campaign will especially focus on barangays Tingub, Maguikay, Casuntingan, Alang-Alang, Umapad, Paknaan, and Opao that traverses the Butuanon River.
Read: Poliovirus in Butuanon River: Health and sanitation issues all rolled into one
The seven-day drive will look for children aged four-years-old and below who are yet to receive their anti-polio vaccination. The vaccine, which comes in three doses, is supposedly given to infants during their immunization schedule.
“Ang katong mga bata below 4 years old, kinahanglan gyud ni sila ma vaccinated. Pero ang atong gipangita kadtong mga defaulters. When we say defaulters, katong ni-miss sa ilang schedule kay ang polio three doses na. Ang uban wala nibalik sa second dose nila,” Tirado said in a press conference on Tuesday.
(Children below four years old must be vaccinated. We are now looking for the defaulters or those who missed their vaccination schedule. The anti-polio vaccine comes in three doses. Some failed to come back for their second and third doses.)
Read: Residents in riverside communities in Mandaue City worried over polio-contaminated Butuanon River
Tirado admitted that following the Dengvaxia (Dengue vaccine) controversy between 2016 to 2017, their vaccination accomplishment significantly dropped.
She said that they will map out the defaulters based on the list of children below four-years-old, who have started but have not completed their vaccination dosages. Tirado said they target to complete the mass vaccination within seven days.
Tirado also said they will do a house to house survey to look for possible cases of polio infection or those that manifest its symptoms like fever, fatigue, and the swelling of the lower extremities.
Read: DOH-7 activates case finding initiatives to prevent possible polio spread in CV
The Department of Health (DOH) recently announced that samples taken from the Butuanon River, which traverses at least 21 barangays in the neighboring cities of Cebu and Mandaue, tested positive for poliovirus.
Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes has since ordered the public from coming close to the Butuanon River, Mahiga Creek, and Tipolo River. /dcb