A health worker gives a child an oral polio vaccine. | INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH – 7) is now targeting to inoculate an estimated 20,000 children in Mandaue City to prevent the re-emergence of polio.
Data from the National Immunization Program (NIP) of the DOH-7 showed that for 2016 to 2019, they were aiming to vaccinate a total of 40,166 children, ages 5 years old and below, in the city.
However, 9,128 out of 40,166 were still subject for oral polio vaccine (OPV) while 17, 736 are to be injected with inactive polio vaccine (IPV).
So far, 31,038 children have completed their OPV schedules while 22, 430 were already administered with IPV.
Ruff Valdevieso, NIP – DOH7 coordinator, said these figures had served as guide for their agency to know how many children in Mandaue City would need to be vaccinated as well as to how many vaccines should be distributed.
“This doesn’t necessarily mean these are the exact numbers of children we’re going to vaccinate in Mandaue City. There are a lot of factors to consider,” Valdevieso said.
Among those they considered, he said, were possibilities that the children had completed their inoculation scheduled in areas outside Mandaue City, or if they had transferred to other cities.
“It’s an estimated guide on how many children we’re expecting to be vaccinated, and the number of vaccines required,” he said.
In the Philippines, inoculation schedules require its population to be administered with three shots of OPV, followed by IPV.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), OPVs are the main preventive measure against polio. These are taken orally as drops, and are easily administered.
IPVs, on the other hand, serve to strengthen the immune system and provide further protection from polio.
IPVs are administered through injections, and will require a trained medical worker to administer to the children.
Valdevieso said children as early as six weeks old were recommended to receive their first dose of OPV.
When they would reach their 10th week and 14th week, the second and third OPV must be administered respectively, he added.
“We are aiming to vaccinate all children in Mandaue who have not started their schedule or are yet to complete it,” Valdevieso said.
DOH -7 has already started its catch-up polio program on Monday, February 17 — the same day the DOH in Metro Manila ordered to roll out strengthened immunization drives.
READ MORE: DOH to roll out intensified surveillance, vaccination drives against spread of polio in CV
This developed after DOH confirmed laboratory results from the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM) that the Butuanon River, which traverses 11 barangays in Mandaue City, tested positive of poliovirus.
READ MORE: Butuanon River in Mandaue tested positive for poliovirus – DOH
Poliovirus causes polio, a highly infectious disease that can cause paralysis.
There is no cure for polio, according to WHO, but it can be prevented from spreading through immunization.
Person-to-person transmission of poliovirus is made possible through the fecal-oral route or with contaminated food or water.
The Philippines has been declared polio-free in 2000. However, 19 years later, in September 2019, the WHO and DOH confirmed the first reemerged case of the disease in Lanao del Sur.
Aside from weakened acute flaccid paralysis surveillance and immunization campaigns, the WHO cited poor and unsanitary living conditions as factors why the country has been placed under high risk of polio transmission./dbs