Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Friday led the vaccination of children below five years old in St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City.
Duque said private hospitals are supporting their campaign to stop polio from spreading.
“We are encouraging parents who have private doctors to have their 0 to 59 months old children vaccinated with polio regardless of their vaccination status,” Duque said.
He renewed his appeal to parents and caregivers to have their children who are less than five years old vaccinated against this debilitating disease.
The Sabayang Patak Kontra Polio campaign started its third round of vaccination in Metro Manila and the second round of vaccination in Mindanao last Nov. 25 that will last until Dec. 7.
Duque said that the DOH is working hand-in-hand with partners to ensure a healthy future for our children.
He said they are partnering with civic groups, non-government organizations, and the private sector to support the synchronized polio vaccination campaign and cover all eligible children, leaving no one behind.
SLMC is one of the private hospitals that pledged their support to the national campaign, following DOH’s confirmation of eight (8) human cases of Polio and 26 environmental samples positive for the virus.
Last Monday, the DOH reported that a nine-year old is the 8th polio case in the country after samples sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine and the National Institute of Infectious Diseases – Japan came out positive for poliovirus.
Duque said the latest confirmed polio case is from Basilan who has not received any vaccines for polio, adding that the Healthg Department
is currently coordinating with the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao – Ministry of Health to maximize immunization maximize immunization coverage and intensify polio vaccination efforts in Basilan.
Duque declared a polio outbreak inhe countyr in September after it confirmed the first case involving a three-year old girl from Lanao del Sur.
The second and third cases were a five-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl from Laguna and Maguindanao, respectively.
The fourth to seventh cases were all in Mindanao, inckuding year-old girl from Maguindanao, a one-year-old boy from Cotabato City, and a four-year-old girl from Cotabato.
The World Health Organization has been polio-free since 2001 until its resurgence in September.