Child gets polio vaccination in Marikina City. Photo: ABS-CBN" width="100%" />
There’s enough polio vaccine for every child in the country, a Department of Health (DOH) official said today amid news that two patients have tested positive of the disease.
Undersecretary Eric Domingo said in an interview today on morning news show Unang Hirit that the DOH will meet with officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) to discuss the exact number of vaccines needed, “but they [WHO] promised that any [vaccines] we need to complete, WHO will be able to provide. Every child who needs vaccinations, we can give it to them.”
Read: 19 years after being declared eradicated, government says polio is back in the Philippines
Usec. Domingo added that the two factors for the debilitating disease’s re-emergence has been low vaccine coverage as well as poor sanitation.
“For the past five years, vaccinations have gone down to 70-80%,” Domingo said, “In 2018, it went down further to 50%…our target is to hit at least 95%.”
Davao City is already set to conduct a massive polio vaccination drive in October after the Davao River tested positive for the virus. Vaccinations are expected to arrive from the DOH in the first week of October, MindaNews reported.
The DOH has confirmed that a 3-year-old girl from Lanao del Sur and a 5-year-old boy from Laguna have tested positive of the disease. DOH’s regional office in Zamboanga also identified seven suspected polio cases in the region, although that has yet to be confirmed.
Domingo says that, as of today, there have been no additional patients diagnosed with the virus apart from the two children that were identified. “Everyone else who was diagnosed with acute paralysis has been so far tested negative for polio,” Domingo said.
Polio’s early symptoms, according to the DOH, include fever, stomach pains, and diarrhea. People with the highest risk of contracting the disease are children below five years old who have yet to receive vaccinations.
Former health chief and now Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin said in an interview today on news show Early Edition, that amid the outbreak, the DOH’s budget for next year was cut by PHP16.6 billion (US$318,212,300). Garin added that there was a 71% reduction in the DOH’s fund for human resources deployment, which would greatly affect the department’s immunization program since it needs experts and personnel to administer the vaccine.
