SAN CARLOS CITY: San Carlos City Mayor Julier Resuello has directed the City Health Office (CHO) to intensify measles vaccination after a six-month-old and a three-year-old members of the Badjao community here tested positive for the disease.
‘There was no need to declare an outbreak since the children have already recovered,’ he said in an interview on Thursday.
He, however, underscored the need to intensify information drive since measles is highly contagious.
In a separate interview, city health officer Dr. Susan Benitez said they learned about the case on May 17 after the Pangasinan Provincial Hospital informed the CHO about a three-year-old girl who was admitted in the hospital and who tested positive for measles.
She said the patient and her family are staying with about 25 to 27 other families in a rented house in Barangay Bugallon here, although they have just arrived from Mindanao.
Upon checking with the family to isolate them, it was also there where the health authorities discovered about the
six-month-old baby who was also positive for the disease based on the test results that came out on May 31.
Thus, the Social Welfare Office provided food for 83 persons daily for five days while village officials also extended assistance.
Benitez said they are very thankful because majority of the Badjaos cooperated and were vaccinated.
“But they have no birth certificates and they don’t even know their ages. So what we did is to provide their individual vaccination cards with the pictures that we have taken and printed, and wrote in that card their names and the date of vaccination,’ she said.
Benitez said health authorities are currently determining how to convince the other Badjaos to get vaccinated, noting that about 15 children just arrived at the place last Saturday.
She said the city has a 72.1 percent accomplishment on measles vaccination based on the target set by the Department of Health (DOH), wherein about 4,828 eligible children computed based on the 210,000 total population of the city need
to get the vaccine.
Also, Department of Health-Center for Health Development in Ilocos Region medical officer Dr. Rheuel Bobis said the agency practices ‘no wrong door’ policy, wherein children may get the measles vaccine in any government facility anywhere in the country.
He also confirmed that vaccination is voluntary, and providing the community with correct information to encourage them to get the vaccine is the only right way.
Source: Philippines News Agency
