DOH-6 eyes inoculating more than 1M kids in annual vax activity

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

The Department of Health-Western Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH-WV CHD) on Monday said it aims to reach more than 20 million children for its annual immunization activity in May 2023.

The target population includes 660,054 children aged 9 to 59 months old for Measles and Rubella (MR), 769,881 kids (0 to 59 months old) for bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV), 73,254 (6 to 11 months old) for 100,000 International Units (IU) of Vitamin A, and 623,453 (12 to 59 months old) for 200,000 IU of the same vitamin.

The MR vaccine target population includes 51,205 in Aklan, 58,472 in Antique, 63,508 in Capiz, 15,265 in Guimaras, 161,566 in Iloilo province, 222,590 in Negros Occidental, 50,081 in Bacolod City, and 37,367 in Iloilo City.

As to the bOPV, 59,656 are in Aklan, 68,339 in Antique, 73,990 in Capiz, 17,582 in Guimaras, 188,737 in Iloilo province, 259,519 in Negros Occidental, 58,394 in Bacolod City, and 43,664 in Iloilo City.

The strategies to be implemented by the regional office include intensive and simultaneous vaccinations in all barangays using fixed and temporary vaccination posts in strategic areas in the first and second weeks, follow-up of deferred and refused children as well as mop-ups for second or more visits in the third week, and continuation of follow-ups and mop-ups for any children that may have been missed in the fourth week.

The regional health office held a virtual press conference for the 2023 MR-bOPV Supplemental Immunization Activity (SIA) where they explained their goals and targets for this year.

Regional Immunization Program coordinator Dr. Jose Martin Atienza said the goal of the DOH’s National Immunization Program (NIP) is 95 percent coverage rate of fully immunized children.

Atienza said this will be done differently to avert possible outbreaks of measles, rubella, and polio, all of which he noted were vaccine-preventable diseases.

Atienza pointed to the low immunization rate in the country which led to a measles outbreak in 2019, despite the SIA being conducted in two phases between that year and 2018.

“For the past few years, over several decades, we have experienced quite a lot of outbreaks here in the Philippines due to vaccine-preventable diseases. This includes measles, rubella, and polio. One reason for this is probably because of a low immunization coverage rate, leading for our children to be more susceptible to contract these [infections],” he added.

The SIA was originally scheduled in March, but was changed to May, and he said that this may have been due to the status of vaccine availability as well as other logistical concerns.

The NIP’s 2022 partial program data indicated a downward trend in fully immunized children since 2013, which was their highest (82.41 percent), the lowest being in 2022 (59.52 percent).

It also showed that in years where SIAs were conducted (2014, 2018, 2019, and 2021), there were lower percentages of fully immunized children, except in 2019, where it rose to 69.30 percent from 2018’s 63.15 percent.

The DOH-WV CHD’s own data indicated that there were three cases of Rubella and two cases of Measles in 2022, and one case each of both diseases in 2023.