DOH sets vaccination of Cordillera schoolchildren

HEALTH UPDATES

Pryce Quintos

BAGUIO CITY -- School-based children enrolled in Grades 1, 4, and 7 will soon get their much-needed shots when an inter-agency school-based immunization program is conducted in the region this month.

Dr. Virginia Narciso, Department of Health-Cordillera’s Child and Adolescent Health Development head, announced during recent adolescent health development technical working group meeting the Departments of Health, Education and Interior and Local Government are working together nationwide to implement the program.

For the region, school children enrolled in the said grades will be administered with one dose of Tetanus-diptheria (Td) vaccine.

Aside from the Td vaccine, school children enrolled in Grade 7 in the Cordillera, regardless of age, will also receive one dose of Measles-Rubella vaccination.

Female school children aged nine to 13 years old enrolled in Grade 4 will receive Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines but  this will be done only in the provinces of Ifugao and Apayao, Narciso said.

A total of 69,730 students in the region are targeted for the immunization project.

The project is part of the health department’s maternal and child health and nutrition (MNCHN) strategy to attain government millennium development goals -- reduction of child mortality and improved maternal health by the end of 2015.

Specifically, it will be a joint activity of the Adolescent Health and Development Program (AHDP) and the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI).

Based on data from the Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit (RESU), there was decrease in number of cases of measles in the region. There were 148 recorded cases in 2014 and as of July 4 this year, there are 35 recorded cases.

RESU data from January 1-July 4 this year also showed those aged 15-19 were mostly affected by measles.

DOH hopes hundred percent turnout in the region-wide project.