By Annabel Consuelo Petinglay/PNA
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique — A house-to-house campaign is being conducted in the seven towns of Antique where there are recorded measles cases.
Dr. Leoncio Abiera of the Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) said in an interview Wednesday that there are 30 measles cases, including one death, monitored in the seven municipalities.
“Sibalom has the most number of measles cases with 13,” he said.
He said that San Jose de Buenavista has six cases, Hamtic with four, San Remigio with three cases, Tobias Fornier with two cases and then Anini-y and Barbaza with one case each recorded from January 1 to 12.
He added last January 12 a four-month old baby died at the Angel Salazar Memorial General Hospital due to measles.
“The house-to-house immunization by the health personnel is intended to establish herd immunity among the children,” he said.
He said that the IPHO is considering the failure to establish herd immunity or a high percentage of the population vaccinated as one of the causes of measles transmission.
“In 2018, there were only 9,182 one-year-old children who were fully immunized,” he said.
He said this is equivalent to only 56 percent of their total target of one-year-old children fully immunized or those who have at least two doses of anti-measles vaccine.
Abiera also said with the death of the baby, the house-to-house campaign for anti-measles vaccination being done by a midwife together with other health personnel in the municipalities now include six-months-old children.
“The house-to-house campaign being conducted is considered special immunization because it already includes six-month-old children,” he said. The special immunization started early this year.
He said that in the routine immunization the first dose is supposedly given to nine month old babies.
