Unvaccinated children against polio has a total of 198,686 in provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon.
The ”Sabayang Patak Kontra Polio” SPKP campaign was on August 3 to 17, 2020 (1st round) and September 14 – 27, 2020 for the (2nd round) in the provinces of Laguna, Rizal and Cavite where polio cases where identified.
Department of Health Region 4-A reported that the vaccination coverage was 83.23% or a total of 986,319 from a target 1,185,005 children aged 0-59 months.
The province of Laguna has a polio vaccination coverage of 87.91% (363,597) with 43,964 unvaccinated children; Rizal province has 86.34% or 369,303 with 50,408 unvaccinated and Cavite province has the lowest with 76.94% or 452,105 with 104,264 unvaccinated children.
According to DOH4-A Regional Director Eduardo Janairo “among the reasons why these children were not given the polio vaccine was because they were not at home during the scheduled visit of the vaccination teams. Also, some parents cannot decide for themselves alone and need to seek the approval of their husband or spouses and some are too sick to receive the vaccine and health workers need to defer their vaccination.”
Janairo also said that, “others refused vaccination due to fear of the vaccine and its side effects. This was brought about by the Dengvaxia scare a few years ago and there is also the religious and cultural belief.” he added.
Health workers or “Bakuna Doors” explained the importance of polio vaccine and how safe it is; we need to give them protection from a very contagious virus that can lead to a lifetime paralysis.