SHARIFF AGUAK, Maguindanao — The Provincial Health Office has launched a house-to-house immunization campaign as the agency intensified efforts to contain the spread of measles in this province.
Dr. Tahir Sulaik, provincial health officer, on Tuesday said personnel from his office including barangay health providers are deployed to the villages “to bring the vaccination to the doorstep of our people.”
Sulaik said like the police, health workers also conduct “TokHang” (knock-plea) type of activity to possibly contain the spread of measles, a highly contagious infectious disease.
On Monday, Sulaik led an information and education caravan to convince parents to allow their children to be immunized against measles and other highly contagious and deadly diseases.
This, as he noted that in remote villages there are parents who remained reluctant to have their children vaccinated.
“That is one of the hindrances,” Sulaik said, adding that the controversy brought about by Dengvaxia anti-dengue vaccines also contributed to parents’ reluctance to vaccination.
Despite these hindrances, Sulaik emphasized that health providers should convinced the parents, explain and educate them of the benefits of immunization.
“We don’t give up easily, we continue persuading them, just a matter of educating the parents,” he said, adding that more than 100 children across the province were admitted at the provincial hospital since they manifested signs and symptoms of measles.
But Sulaik maintained that health providers should secure parents’ consent, and not to forced, before the will immunized their children.
The Department of Health in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DOH-ARMM) has declared an outbreak after they recorded 14 cases of measles with six deaths from December 2017 until February 20, this year.
Dr. Kadil Sinolinding, DOH-ARMM secretary, said records showed that six of the 14 cases were registered in Lanao del Sur and eight in Sulu and Maguindanao.
“Even one case of measles and was confirmed by serology can be considered an outbreak based on the criteria ng WHO (World Health Organization),” Sinolinding said.
“We have declared an outbreak because 14 cases region-wide is alarming because we have measles elimination program for the past years,” he said.
Based on DOH-ARMM data, only 70 percent of the children in the region have been immunized due to logistical problem and availability of vaccines.
But Sinolinding hopes that there will be no more cases of measles that would surface as mass immunization has been going on across the region.
He said measles is an infectious disease that could cause death among infants if not addressed immediately. (PNA)
