CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The City Health Office maintained on Monday, July 3, that no eligible children missed the Measles-Rubella and Oral Polio Vaccine Supplemental Immunization Activity (MR-OPVSIA) here despite falling short of achieving the target provided by the Department of Health (DOH).
A MOTHER carries her baby while talking to Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Rolando Uy and City Health Officer Dr. Rachel Dilla during the kick-off ceremony of the Measles-Rubella and Oral Polio Vaccine Supplemental Immunization Activity at the Barangay Carmen covered court in Cagayan de Oro on May 2. (Franck Dick Rosete)
CHO chief Dr. Rachel Dilla said representatives from the DOH central office were here recently to conduct a validation of the vaccination activity and found out that majority of children from different barangays in this city have been inoculated against these diseases.
"That’s good news for us. Meaning, we already followed all the children," Dilla said in an online press briefing.
excluding those children who have private doctors and are the ones providing the vaccines.
Health officials here earlier explained that the projected population provided by the DOH for the activity is different from the actual population of eligible children in this city.
Based on the DOH’s projected population, Cagayan de Oro has a total target population of 63,248 children aged nine to 59 months for measles-rubella vaccines and 73,964 children aged zero to 59 months for OPV.
Dr. Ina Grace Chiu, CHO medical coordinator for the National Immunization Program, said they have no actual data for the actual population of children in this city and that this can only be obtained from barangay health centers.
CITY Health Officer Dr. Rachel Dilla answers a question from the Manila Bulletin during an online press briefing on Monday, July 3. (Screengrab from the Cagayan de Oro City Information Offic Facebook live)
She said that when it comes to conducting this kind of activity, they have been following the projected population provided by the Health department.
After the conduct of MR-OPVSIA from May 2 to June 15, this city achieved 80.48 percent coverage for measles-rubella vaccines and 82.10 percent coverage for OPV.
However, the accomplishments are still subject to review. The target must be at least 95 percent.
A representative from DOH-Northern Mindanao (Region 10) said the final data gathering will probably be finished after the first week of July.
Last year, there were only 74,226 or 68.43 percent fully immunized children in Northern Mindanao based on the data from DOH-Region 10, 8.08 percent lower than the 77,033 or 76.51 percent in 2021.