1M Central Luzon kids targeted for vaccines vs 3 contagious diseases
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—More doses of vaccines for measles, rubella and polio viruses would be administered to more than one million children in all seven Central Luzon provinces starting on Feb. 1, the Department of Health (DOH) in the region said.
The campaign called Supplementary Immunization Activity (SIA) aims to vaccinate at least 95 percent of infants and children aged 9-59 months for measles-rubella and give oral polio vaccines to those aged 0-59 months old.
In a statement, the DOH said the children will be given the vaccines although they had received these before.
It said the diseases may resurface because of “consistent low coverage of routine immunizations” that reached just 64 and 70 percent of target in 2016 to 2019.
A polio Type 2 case was confirmed in Nueva Ecija in early 2020, prompting regionwide vaccination against it.
According to the DOH, the SIA will be done in fixed venues like village health centers to ensure the right temperatures of the injectable vaccines.
