CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Mayor Rolando Uy asked health workers here not to miss a single home when they do a house-to-house vaccination drive.
DEPARTMENT of Health Undersecretary Beverly Lorraine Ho vaccinates a child during the kick-off ceremony of the Measles-Rubella and Oral Polio Vaccine Supplemental Immunization Activity (MR-OPVSIA) at the Barangay Carmen covered court, Cagayan de Oro City, on Tuesday, May 2. (Franck Dick Rosete)
“It won’t be successful if there (are eligible children) in a house that won’t be vaccinated. Try (your best) that no one will be missed)," said Uy during the kick-off ceremony of the Measles-Rubella and Oral Polio Vaccine Supplemental Immunization Activity (MR-OPVSTA) on Tuesday, May 2, at the Barangay Carmen Hall covered court here. City health officer Dr. Rachel Dilla earlier said there will be house-to-house immunization for the month-long activity, apart from the immunization in various health centers and other fixed posts, such as churches, barangay halls, and covered courts. Eligible children are aged zero to 59 months for the polio vaccine and nine months to 59 months for the measles-rubella vaccine. Dilla said there are 73,382 children in this city aged zero to 59 months who need to be vaccinated for oral polio vaccine and 62,755 eligible children aged six to 59 months for measles-rubella. In the house-to-house vaccination, the number of teams would depend on the barangay’s population. Each team must have a vaccinator and recorder, and the barangay health workers (BHWs) will serve as the navigators. Overall, there are 148 teams conducting house-to-house immunizations. The teams will do house-to-house immunization based on the spot map that was made by the BHWs. Department of Health Undersecretary Beverly Lorraine Ho, who graced the MR-OPVSIA kick-off activity in this city, said the country needs to catch up as it did not achieve the 95 percent target coverage for the last couple of years. On the national level, Ho said the country only reached below 65 percent vaccination coverage. This means that there were three to four children out of 10 who hadn’t been vaccinated. "Hindi dapat ganon. Kaya may kailangan tayong habulin (It shouldn't be like that. That’s why we have something to chase)," Ho told the Manila Bulletin on Tuesday. On the regional level, according to DOH-Region 10, there were only 74,226 or 68.43 percent fully immunized children in Northern Mindanao last year. This is 8.08 percent lower compared to the 77,033 or 76.51 percent fully immunized children in the region for 2021. On the other hand, last year, there were four confirmed cases of measles in the region. This is higher compared to the one confirmed case in 2021. The same goes for rubella, where the region tallied eight confirmed cases last year, which is higher compared to the three confirmed cases in 2021. This year, there were only 62 suspected cases of measles in the region from January to March, but there was no confirmed case. In the same period for rubella, there were no suspected cases, but there were already two confirmed rubella cases in the region. Meanwhile, for acute flaccid paralysis, there have been no confirmed cases for the last two years, including from January to March this year. Health officials in this city already said that regardless of the children's immunization status, they should still be given the vaccines as part of the city’s initiative to combat the spread of these diseases.