COTABATO CITY (PNA) – The chief minister of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has called on parents across the five-component provinces of the region to have their children vaccinated for measles and rubella from October 26 to November 25 this year.
BARMM Chief Minister Ahod Ebrahim said the region’s Ministry of Health was focused on strengthening the measles-rubella campaign that is targeting some 500,000 children in the region aged nine months to five years old.
“This immunization campaign is important to us for our children,” Ebrahim said in a video message here Thursday.
BARMM's health ministry, he said, has assured that no local transmission of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) would occur during the immunization as the health workers will be equipped with personal protective equipment, and will practice minimum health protocols.
He added that safe physical distancing and frequent washing of hands by the health workers will also be observed at the venues of immunization.
“We also ask all parents and toddlers alike to wear face masks and face shields,” Ebrahim said. He pointed out that the vaccines are safe and effective as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the last three decades.
“If ever your children have cough, colds, or fever symptoms, they have to go examination first by our doctors, nurses, or health-trained personnel," Ebrahim said.
A “fatwa” (Islamic ruling) has earlier been approved by Muslim religious leaders of the Regional Darul Ifta (House of Opinion) citing immunization as permissive in Islam.