Friday, October 12, 2007 Benguet to vaccinate 35-T kids from measles By Jane Cadalig
HEALTH workers in Benguet are targeting to immunize 35,076 children in this year's nationwide anti-measles drive.
The Provincial Health Office will also deploy 140 individuals in different parts of the province to ensure that every child, aging nine months to four years old, is given the anti-measles vaccine. Benguet has a total population of 359,716.
In La Trinidad, health workers will conduct a door-to-door vaccination. Other areas in the province will hold the vaccination in the designated health centers.
The anti-measles vaccination will be done from October 15 to November 15 this year.
The launching of this month-long activity for Benguet was done at the Betag barangay hall in La Trinidad with World Health Organization consultant, Dr. Howard Sobel, and officials from the Department of Health-CAR.
Sobel advised health workers here to ensure that every child is given the anti-measles vaccine, warning that measles is the most infectious disease, "deadlier than SARS and avian influenza."
The WHO representative said that 20 out of every 100 children infected with measles suffer from complications which include pneumonia, encephalitis, blindness, deafness and malnutrition, among others.
"Measles is a crippling disease," Sobel said, while lauding the Philippines for drastically reducing the number of measles cases and deaths. Sobel said a stronger effort is needed to eliminate this, saying the disease recurred in the country in November 2006, after recording no cases after the nationwide anti-measles vaccination in 2004.
An outbreak was reported in Metro Manila, Zamboanga, Basilan and Palawan even after the National Government said that it will bat for the elimination of measles by 2008.
After the massive vaccination in 2004, Sobel said the WHO was impressed by the 96 percent reduction in measles cases and the 99 percent reduction in deaths.
"This is an amazing accomplishment, which made the Philippines non-contributory to the world's measles cases anymore," he said.
