ALERT RAISED

LINGAYEN–Some 300,000 children in Pangasinan aged zero to 10 years, constituting 2.7 percent of the province’s three million population have not been inoculated with vaccines against many preventable diseases.  

This was reveled by Dr. Anna Maria Teresa de Guzman, provincial health officer, as she attributed it to the stigma created by the Dengvaxia scare that alarmed many parents and eventually refused any kind of vaccination for their children. 

De Guzman admitted though that the vaccination program in the province hit 75 percent of the target in 2018 and continued to maintain this momentum during the first semester of this year until the second semester the year when vaccination saw a downtrend again.

“That is why we ordered all Rural Health Units to open from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturdays to accommodate working mothers bringing their babies for vaccination,” she said.

At the same time, RHU personnel, with the help of barangay officials, conducted a house to house campaign in September and October.

RHUs administer the first dose of vaccine at two months, the second at four months and the third, if needed, at six months to prevent babies from contracting chickenpox, diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, Hepatitis A and B, Influenza, measles, mumps, rubella and meningococcal. 

She said there is focus to prevent a measles outbreak because it can lead to blindness and other complications in colds and cough that could eventually end up in pneumonia and even death.

De Guzman announced that Pangasinan remains polio-free, admitting that during the World Anti-Polio Day on October 24 after the RHUs stepped up the vaccination of children from five years old and below against polio.

She admitted that Pangasinan is on guard, too, against polio as there were cases already found in Laguna and Manila, where a number of Pangasinenses work and could be carriers of polio virus when they return to the province. (Leonardo Micua)  

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