DOH targets 500,000 children for immunization
SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union–The Region 1 office of the Department of Health (DOH) is set to embark on an extensive immunization campaign against measles, targeting some 500,000 children between nine months to five years old.
Clarita Lewis of the DOH’s Expanded Program on Immunization in the region said health workers will be taking a more aggressive stance by adopting a door-to-door campaign.
Through this approach, mothers will no longer have an excuse not to have their children immunized, she added.
The program is part of the DOH’s “Knock out Tigdas (Measles)” project.
Lewis, in a phone interview with The PUNCH, said 80% of the children in the region have already been fully immunized and they now want to cover the remaining 20%.
The DOH intends to eliminate measles by 2008.
The Knock Out Tigdas project will be launched in Pangasinan, tentatively in Pozorrubio town, from Oct. 15 to Nov. 15.
Based on 2005 records, Pozorrubio had the highest number of children not immunized. The situation has since improved and as of last year, the town ranked 16.
Measles, also known as rubeola, is a disease caused by a virus spread through respiration (contact with fluids from an infected person’s nose and mouth, either directly or through aerosol transmission), and is highly contagious.
About 90% of people without immunity and sharing a house with an infected person will definitely catch it. #
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