By Antonio Colina DAVAO CITY – The Department of Health (DOH)-Davao Region said health workers have found it difficult to administer measles and polio vaccines on children because some parents here have remained reluctant to get them immunized. Dr. Cleo Fe Tabada, regional epidemiology surveillance unit (RESU) of the DOH-Davao, said although at least 96 percent of children in the region have already been vaccinated by December 2019, she said there were parents who continued to fear getting their children vaccinated because of the reported threats that the immunization can cause to patients receiving it. “Those who refused questioned the safeness of the vaccine,” she said. She added there were children who were not vaccinated since they were not around during the house-to-house visit of the health workers. “A larger part of those who had not been immunized were not covered since the children were not in the house or being carried around by the mother or were left to the care of the grandmother in a different location while the mother was away to work,” she said. She said the local government units and DOH-Davao received reinforcement from several volunteers from Philippine National Red Cross, rotaries, non-government organizations, and other volunteer groups “helping out to enhance immunization coverage.” “We are very thankful we are able to reach even much more than what we’ve reached that’s 96% in December 2019 because of those volunteers and because of those Filipinos who are becoming more open to avail of the immunization,” she said. She said she hopes to cover more children this month. The region targets to immunize the 575,000 this year, according to her.