BY: REY ANTHONY H. CHIU
TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Sept 8 (PIA) –Banking on its highly successful anti-measles campaign in 2011, the Department of Health (DOH) is again putting its resources on a supplementary measles and rubella mass immunization, to arrest the feared re-circulation of measles virus in some areas of the country.
This as DOH noticed significant outbreaks of measles and rubella last year, according to Dr. Greg Julius Sodusta, Bohol assistant provincial health officer.
Measles is not among the country’s deadliest diseases, but the complications it can bring might trigger the alarm, explained Dr. Nelson Elle, Maternal and Child Health Care director for region 7.
Speaking at the Kapihan sa PIA with maternal and child health care coordinator Machiavelia Caliao, Dr. Elle pointed out that pneumonia and pulmonary complications rank among the country’s top killing diseases, many of them caused by measles.
Measles is a very contagious infection that causes a rash all over the body. It is also called rubeola or red measles, and is caused by an airborne virus, which can be spread when an infected person coughs, sneezes, shares food or drinks or when one gets near an infected person, medical authorities claimed.
Due to the threat, the Philippines conducted a massive immunization in 2001, Dr. Sodusta shared.
But with the recurring threat, the DOH conducts this September 2014, an nationwide measles and rubella mass immunization billed as “Ligtas Tigdas, Magkaisa, Magpabakuna,” Dr. Elle revealed at the weekly radio forum.
Target for the measles and rubella immunization are kids 5 months to 59 months old, authorities noting that most of those who were infected were within these age brackets, the regional coordinator said.
In September this year, municipal health teams led by rural health doctors and nurses, along with Barangay Health Workers would be moving around town to administer the free mass immunizations, Dr. Elle said.
Parents need to bring with them the baby’s book of immunization record so as to allow health workers to know which immunization the child needs, the doctor reminds.
But if the child has no immunization record yet, parents are advised to seek immediate immunization and get the book from rural health workers, he added.
This time, an immunized child would be given a finger mark: indelible ink on the finger, as a sign that he has completed the mass immunization, authorities said.
On the other hand, despite the fact that the Philippines has enjoyed a polio-free status since 2000 when the Western pacific Region was certified polio-free, the ever increasing porous international boundaries has re-opened the country to the probability of an imported wild polio-virus from other regions entering and starting a new trend of infections.
For this, the DOH is also putting up Oral Polio Vaccine Mass Immunization, to provide a second opportunity to catch missed children and protect the country from a potential poliovirus importation. (mbcn/RAC/PIA7-Bohol)