This file photo shows a health worker administering oral polio vaccines to an infant in Manila as part of a nationwide campaign. Polio has returned to haunt the Philippines after a 19-year absence on September 19, 2019 following the report of one case of the debilitating disease in Mindanao. (Photo by JAY DIRECTO / AFP)
MANILA, Philippines — A total of 25 polio infections have been detected in the Philippines since an outbreak of the debilitating disease was declared in September 2019.
According to Dr. Wilda Silva, program manager of the Department of Health (DOH) immunization program, 16 of the total infections are deemed “polio cases” or those patients that already have permanent disabilities.
“Since September 2019 until June 2020, we have a total of 25 polio infections, 16 of these polio infections are polio cases. So ano po yung kaibahan nun? Kapag sinabi nating polio cases, these are already patients with permanent disabilities,” Silva said in an online media forum Friday.
“Ito po ‘yung nagkaroon na ng pagkaparalisa ng kanilang lower extremities secondary to the polio virus,” she added.
Meanwhile, nine “healthy children without disability” are seen shedding the polio virus, the health official added.
Most of the polio infections were recorded in various provinces in Mindanao, particularly in Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat.
The crippling and at times fatal infectious disease re-emerged in the Philippines 19 years after health authorities reported one polio case in Lanao del Sur last year. The World Health Organization declared the country polio-free in 2000.
The return of the virus prompted the DOH to augment its polio immunization program. But as of June 30, the DOH’s national immunization program has achieved an average polio immunization coverage rate of only 25 percent across the country.