The Department of Health on Wednesday urged parents to have their children vaccinated against measles, polio and rubella to prevent an outbreak next year.
The department is not yet seeing an increase in cases this year despite a decrease in vaccine coverage due to the practice of minimum health standards, such as proper handwashing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Beverly Ho, director of the department’s health promotion bureau, told ANC’s Headstart.
“We might not get cases this year, but we might get them next year,” she said.
“At the end of the day, for vaccine-preventable diseases we shouldn’t have deaths. We consider it one too many.”
The department will launch an immunization drive from Oct. 26 to Nov. 25 in the Ilocos region, Cagayan Valley, the Cordilleras, Mimaropa, Bicol and Mindanao, Ho said.
It will also launch a campaign from Feb. 1 to 28, 2021, in Metro Manila, Central Luzon, Calabarzon and the Visayas.
“We want to assure everyone that protocols are in place. Our health care workers are adequately protected and we have mechanisms to ensure there’s physical distancing,” she said.
Ho urged parents to contact their local health authorities, centers or DOH hotline 8651-7800 to schedule their children for immunization.
The United Nations Children’s Fund earlier said childhood immunization coverage in the country had been “declining sharply in recent years, from 87 percent in 2014 to 68 percent in 2019,” exposing children to diseases that can be prevented by vaccinations such as measles and polio.
It raised concerns that 2 million Filipino children may miss out on vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic as quarantine measures are implemented.
In 2018, health authorities noted a decline in the country’s vaccination rate as parents hesitated to get their children inoculated for vaccine-preventable diseases following a controversy over the safety of the anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia.