DOH lists examples of comorbidities under vaccination priority

Public school teachers receive Sinovac jab during the COVID-19 vaccination effort of the City Government of Manila on Tuesday, April 13, at the Palacio de Maynila, Roxas Boulevard.-INQUIRER/GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) enumerated on Thursday examples of comorbidities that are included in the government’s priority COVID-19 vaccination list.

The DOH said Department Memorandum No. 2021-0175 provides further clarifications on the guidelines for vaccination.

Examples of comorbid conditions under the A3 priority group, based on priority diseases that put an individual at a higher risk of contracting severe COVID-19:

• Chronic respiratory disease and infection such as asthma and respiratory allergies, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, interstitial lung diseases, cystic fibrosis, or pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary tuberculosis, chronic bronchitis, histoplasmosis, bronchiectasis
• Cardiovascular disease such as hypertension coronary heart diseases, cardiomyopathies, peripheral artery disease, aortic diseases, rheumatic heart disease, congenital heart disease
• Chronic kidney disease
• Cerebrovascular diseases such as stroke and transient ischemic attack
• Cancer of malignancy
• Diabetes mellitus type 1 and 2
• Obesity
• Neurologic diseases such as dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease, epilepsy and seizures, Bell’s palsy, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, or acute spinal cord injury
• Chronic liver disease such as hepatitis cirrhosis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
• Immunodeficiency states such as genetic immunodeficiencies, secondary or acquired immunodeficiencies (i.e. prolonged use of corticosteroids), HIV infection, solid organ or blood transplant patients
• Other diseases such as sickle cell disease, thalassemia, or down syndrome

The DOH memorandum read that other disease conditions not included in the above examples but belong to the general category of conditions are also eligible under the A3 priority group.

The memo also states that individuals with a blood pressure of 180/120 or higher with signs and symptoms of organ damage during the screening process will not be vaccinated.

“Other vaccine recipients with blood pressure not meeting definitions of hypertensive emergency may be vaccinated,” the DOH said.

Medical clearance is not required, except for immunocompromised individuals such as those with autoimmune disease, human immunodeficiency virus, cancer patients currently undergoing immunosuppressive therapy, transplant patients, those undergoing steroid treatment, and patients who are bedridden or with a poor prognosis, according to the DOH.

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