DOH deploys volunteers to help in vax drive

CEBU CITY – The Department of Health (DOH) in Central Visayas deployed about a hundred volunteers to drum up the national government’s free supplemental immunization program targeting 700,000 children in the region.

Dr. Jaime Bernadas, DOH regional director, said the effort to catch up with the target number of children to be vaccinated is ongoing, with local health workers working hard to visit children in their houses if they cannot go to the rural health units for their measles, rubella and polio vaccines.

He urged local government officials to support the national campaign dubbed “Chikiting Ligtas” which aimed to immunize children aged 5 years old and below to prevent outbreaks of diseases in the future.

Dr. Joan Antonette Albito, DOH regional family health section head, said the region Central Visayas so far has accomplished 41%r of the target number of children to be vaccinated. Albito observed a slower accomplishment among local governments, citing weather conditions that made nursing mothers afraid to bring their children to the barangay health centers for their jabs. “Not all barangays have started the vaccination campaign promptly when the program started in the last two weeks because they have other programs to attend to,” she explained.

She said barangay health workers are also trying hard to reach the far-flung areas for house-to-house immunization of children, especially those who are living in the mountain areas. “We need to vaccinate 37,000 children per day in the entire Central Visayas for the next 10 working days to reach the 95 percent goal. That is computed based on the remaining unvaccinated eligible children as of May 15,” Albito said.

With the augmentation of volunteers from the central office and the DOH’s Center for Health Development in Central Visayas, Albito said they are hopeful that they can catch up with the 90% target within the next two weeks. (John Rey Saavedra)