THE Mandaue City Health Office (MCHO) has given oral polio vaccine and inactive polio vaccine to 365 children ages zero to 59 months on the first day of their catch-up vaccination on Feb. 19,2020.
There are 189 children who received the oral polio vaccine (OPV) while 176 children got the inactive polio vaccine (IPV).
The 365 count is about two percent of the 18,000 identified children under five years old in Mandaue City that have not completed the vaccination.
Dr. Rose Marie Ouano-Tirado, MCHO chief, told SunStar Cebu that they need to achieve 95 percent vaccination rate of the children who have not completed the polio vaccination by March 6, 2020 as directed by the Department of Health (DOH).
Even if today, Feb. 25, 2020, is a national holiday, Tirado said that the barangay health workers will be on duty and continue the house-to-house vaccination to achieve the 95 percent vaccination rate of 17,100 children.
She claimed that although they conduct house-to-house vaccinations on weekdays, the barangays are still encouraged to continue them during weekends.
“We are not accepting any consultations for the meantime and send our barangay nurses on field while the doctors remain at the health centers to focus on the polio vaccination,”said Tirado.
However, on Wednesdays, Tirado said that they will continue their routine vaccination at the health center.
Tirado assured that they have enough supplies for the vaccination.
During vaccinations some parents still do not want their children to be vaccinated because of the Dengvaxia scare years ago.
Meanwhile, last Friday, Feb. 21, Tirado conducted an information dissemination to barangay health workers from all 27 barangays in Mandaue City so that the health workers could better explain to the parents the objective of the catch-up vaccination.
Right now, Mandaue City health workers together with the barangay health workers are still looking for the “shredder” or the carrier of the poliovirus that was found at the Butuanon River. Tirado said that they are still waiting for the results of the 10 random stool samples from children under five years old to help them locate the poliovirus source. (KFD)