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.
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