Mandaue City has vaccinated only 37 percent of eligible children based on its master list and 26 percent based on the Department of Health target, falling far below the 95 percent coverage goal.
City Health Officer Dr. Debra Maria Catulong cited social media misinformation and hostility toward health workers during house-to-house visits as factors contributing to low turnout and vaccine hesitancy.
Department of Health 7 urged parents to continue vaccinations despite concerns over the death of a vaccinated seven-month-old child in Dumanjug, stating that no medical evidence currently links the death to the vaccine.
MANDAUE City has vaccinated only 37 percent of eligible children based on its master list and 26 percent based on the Department of Health (DOH) target, far below the 95 percent coverage goal sought under the measles-rubella supplemental immunization campaign.
Amid the low turnout and concerns over the death of a vaccinated seven-month-old child in Dumanjug, Cebu, DOH 7 urged parents across Central Visayas to continue having their children vaccinated. It said no medical evidence so far has linked the child’s death to the measles-rubella (MR) vaccine and that an investigation is underway.
Vaccination coverage falls sharply
Mandaue City Health Officer Dr. Debra Maria Catulong said the 37 percent rate was based on the city’s master list of 21,849 eligible children, while the 26 percent rate used the DOH-computed target of 30,836.
Based on the percentages, about 8,084 children would have been vaccinated using the city list and about 8,017 using the DOH target. Catulong did not provide a number of the vaccinated children, only the percentages.
Both rates are well below the 95 percent target. Catulong said turnout in previous campaigns had exceeded 90 percent.
“This has been so far the hardest year, the most difficult year for us,” she said.
Vaccine refusals and resistance
Catulong said vaccine misinformation circulating on social media has contributed to hesitancy, with some parents giving more weight to unverified online claims than advice from health workers.
Health workers conducting house-to-house visits have reported having doors slammed in their faces, being verbally threatened and encountering aggressive residents. In some cases, residents allegedly unleashed guard dogs on vaccination teams.
Mandaue extends vaccination drive
The MR supplemental immunization campaign in Central Visayas began Aug. 10 and was scheduled to end Aug. 28. Mandaue officials said door-to-door vaccination would continue until Sept. 4 to reach children who had been missed.
Doctors have joined teams in resistant areas to answer parents’ questions and explain vaccine safety. The city health office has also started giving pre-exposure rabies vaccinations to health workers and barangay health volunteers because of risks during field visits.
Misconceptions and health risks
The campaign covers children ages six to 59 months. The supplemental dose is given even to children who previously received routine MR vaccines.
Catulong said some parents mistakenly believe another dose means vaccines given during infancy were ineffective. She said the supplemental dose is intended to strengthen protection while measles and rubella continue to circulate.
She also clarified that the form parents complete before vaccination is not a waiver. It records a child’s medical and vaccination history so health workers can assess whether the vaccine can be safely given. Parental or guardian consent is required because the children are minors.
Concerns over vaccine safety intensified after a child in Dumanjug, who received the MR vaccine on Aug. 10, died on Aug. 24. The family questioned whether the vaccination was connected to the death.
The Dumanjug Municipal Health Office reported the case to the DOH’s Regional Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit. The Provincial Health Office also sent a team to investigate.
DOH 7 said no medical evidence currently links the death to the vaccine and urged the public not to draw conclusions while the investigation is pending.
The agency warned that declining immunization could leave more children vulnerable. Measles can cause pneumonia, encephalitis and other serious complications, while rubella can also cause serious health problems.
“The risk of these complications is devastatingly higher than the risk of a vaccine reaction,” DOH 7 said. / ABC, CDF