DAVAO CITY - The Mati City Health Office (CHO) is targeting at least 15,000 children to be vaccinated as they prepare for their Measles-Rubella Supplemental Immunization (MR-SIA) this month.
City Information Office head Ben Tesiorna said that the Mati CHO will be administering measles and rubella vaccines to children aged 59 months or those five years of age from October 26 to November 25 this year.
The effort is being pushed following a measle outbreak declared in Mati City in August 2019 when about 24 people were infected and two one-year-old infants died in Barangay Don Salvador Lopez. By December, a total of 46 were infected. It was finally contained in January 2020.
According to the CHO, the MR-SIA is aimed at preventing or interrupting the transmission of measles virus in the city, Tesiorna said.
Mati CHO will put up fixed posts or modified fixed posts, and will also send vaccination teams composed of vaccinator, recorder and guide to target houses. Every child vaccinated will be marked with an indelible ink on the left pinky.
Week 1 and 2 of the campaign will be the intensive phase for MR-SIA. The CHO will do follow up and mop ups of missed and deferred children in weeks 3 to 4.
The immunization activity will end every 2 p.m. To achieve the 95 percent total target in the end of the activity, CHO needs to immunize 50 children a day.
DOH earlier warned the public that measles is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by a virus. It is transmitted from person-to-person through sneezing, coughing, and close personal contact. Its signs and symptoms include cough, runny nose, red eyes/conjunctivitis, fever, skin rashes lasting for more than three days.