ni Lolet Abania | October 24, 2021
Mariing hinihikayat ngayon ang mga magulang na pabakunahan na ang kanilang mga anak laban sa mga tinatawag na preventable diseases, ayon sa World Health Organization (WHO) at ilan pang grupo kasabay ng pagdiriwang ng World Polio Day ngayong Linggo.
Matatandaang inianunsiyo ng pamahalaan nitong Hunyo na huminto na ang polio outbreak sa bansa matapos na mag-resurfaced o muling naitala ito noong 2019.
Ang mga bata na nasa edad 5 ang pinaka-vulnerable o madaling tamaan ng polio, “a highly infectious, crippling, and sometimes fatal disease that can be avoided with a vaccine,” ayon sa WHO, Department of Health (DOH), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), at Rotary International.
“Once a commonplace illness, polio has been eliminated from most countries, including now again in the Philippines. This shows the power of vaccines to save lives and protect people from diseases such as polio,” ani WHO representative of the Philippines na si Dr. Rabindra Abeyasinghe.
“Ang mga bakuna po for routine immunization ay ligtas at libre, makipag-ugnayan lamang po sa local health centers sa inyong lugar,” sabi naman ni DOH Secretary Francisco Duque.
Una nang ni-launched ng DOH nito lamang buwan ang catch-up immunization campaign, na layong mabakunahan ng anti-polio vaccine ang mga bata na nasa edad 2 na naka-missed ng naturang vaccine doses.
Halos kalahating milyong Pilipinong mga bata noong 2020, ang nakaligtaan ang kanilang oral polio drops para sa routine immunization dahil na rin sa pandemya.
Ayon sa isang joint statement ng grupo, nananatili namang endemic ang polio sa mga lugar lamang ng Afghanistan at Pakistan.
Dagdag pa nila, ito lamang din ang ikalawang sakit sunod sa smallpox na kailangang sugpuin ng mga naturang bansa at maging polio-free na rin.
“Every disease outbreak strains the country’s resources, especially health workers, as the pandemic persists,” saad ni Abeyasinghe.
“The lives and health of our children are at stake. Our plea to parents: please ensure that your children have received all the routine childhood vaccines including polio doses as we prepare for them to go back to schools and early learning centers,” sabi pa ni Abeyasinghe.
“Vaccines work – the fact that we are close to ending polio is proof of this. However, we are not yet there and we must fulfill our promise to children to make the world polio-free,” pahayag naman ni Mary Anne Alcordo Solomon, coordinator ng Rotary International Zone 10A (Philippines) End Polio Now.