WHO sets mass immunization drive
By JENNY F. MANONGDO
January 24, 2010, 5:17pm
The World Health Organization (WHO) will begin a mass immunization drive this year in nine provinces dubbed as “high risk areas” for tetanus, including the provinces of Maguindanao, Basilan and Lanao del Norte.
The WHO initiative against maternal and newborn tetanus will also cover other areas such as Lanao del Sur, Abra, Cotabato City, Benguet, and Isabela City in Basilan.
According to Dr. Howard Sobel, WHO medical officer and team leader on immunization drives, the provinces were termed as “high-risk areas” because of the low vaccination coverage, which means government vaccination drives are hardly able to reach those provinces.
Sobel said only three out of 10 children in those provinces receive the much needed vaccinations included in the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) program of the government.
“The reason why tetanus, measles, and polio cases are high in Mindanao is because of low vaccine coverage…children born in the ARMM have the highest risk of dying from vaccine-preventable diseases,” he said.
Sobel was guest speaker in a forum on the progress of immunization programs in the Philippines organized by the Philippine College of Physicians (PCP).
The EPI program of the Department of Health (DoH) prevents life-threatening diseases such as Diphtheria, Measles, Pertussis, Hepatitis B and Tetanus.
Hepatitis B has been identified as a common virus in the country that affects around 300,000 Filipinos yearly and kills 9,000 annually.
The goal of the Philippines is to eliminate Hepatitis B by 2012.
Meanwhile, as many as 14,000 Filipinos children die from measles yearly, but the 2003 Ligtas Tigdas of the DoH improved the situation such that there was a 99 percent reduction of deaths owing to measles, the WHO noted.
“There was not one confirmed case until late 2006,” Sobel reported. “It was the first reintroduction of cases… Previously, in the San Lazaro Hospital, there were 10,000 cases of measles every year. Until they close the measles ward entirely… Seeing that, nothing is more rewarding to a public health doctor,” Sobel said.
The WHO medical officer who has been working with Filipino health authorities for six years now said the success of the EPI showed an incredible success that he has not seen elsewhere.
“There was a decrease in the measles cases by 96 to 99 percent. It is incredible, I have never seen it before,” he said. “The best thing about the people here is you give them little ideas and they can take off from there.”
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/240116/who-sets-mass-immunization-drive
