MANILA, Philippines – Some communities now face a shortage of fitness to administer polio vaccines due to demanding situations posed by the coronavirus pandemic, said a Department of Health (DOH) official.
“Makikita po natin na despite making plans and micro-making plans na ginagawa natin, first of all, a large number of fitness workers, Hindi po maiiwasan na, will be exposed because they make Sabayang Patak Kontra Polio and also help COVID -19 Efforts,” he said.
“There are cases where there is no problem . . . Nababawasan yung ating personal fitness that transmits COVID-19,” he added.
(There are cases where we face a shortage . . . The number of fitness personnel administered by the vaccine is being reduced as some of them will be quarantined in accordance with our COVID-19 transmission control policy).
That’s why, Silva said, doH is fitness staff in other regions to help communities facing a shortage of polio vaccinators.
Silva also said that some local government (LGU) sets are reluctant to let their fitness staff out and administer the polio vaccine for fear of imaginable transmission of the virus.
However, it is pushing for the polio vaccination programme to take place simultaneously.
He was confident that the DOH had provided adequate address to the fitness staff for prevention and COVID-19.
(We also direct them to methods to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The DOH not only aims at broad coverage, but must also carry out a synchronized program).
“We’ll have to protect them all at the same time,” he added.
According to Silva, DOH also allows LMU to recruit volunteers, but for oral polio vaccine.
“We review our policy at the time we earn trained or trained fitness workers. However, in our policy, it is also established that for oral polio vaccine, we can call volunteers, we can guide them and then we will allow them, because oral vaccine is possible. bibig,” he explained.
(We have reviewed our policy and vaccine management should be done through trained staff or fitness workers, however, our policy also states that for oral polio vaccine, we can call volunteers, we can guide them, and then we will allow them because our oral vaccine is given by dropping the aggregate into our mouths. )
“We are allowing our local government and regional office groups to apply for volunteers to provide oral polio vaccine,” he added.
From August 2019 to January this year, Silva, the DOH, conducted several outbreak vaccination cycles to combat vaccine-derived poliovirus in the national capital region and in all Mindanao regions.
“We did a successful campaign,” he said.
Meanwhile, for Sabayang Patak Kontra Polio of the DOH, he said implementation of the programme planned for February 2020 had been postponed by a later date due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The DOH official said some were regions that “behaved well” in the polio vaccination crusade in the first part of 2020, while some faced demanding situations as a result of the pandemic.
“There are regions that are doing very well despite the situation of COVID-19,” he said, referring to Regions 1, 2, 3, 5, the Cordillera Administrative Region and the Davao Region.
“NcR and Region 4-A are not working very well. They argued that due to the coVID-19 situation, their regions are the epicenter of [COVID-19], they are hampering their functionality or the provision of regimen immunization services. “she added.
Previously at the online forum, Silva said a total of 25 polio infections had been detected in the Philippines since an outbreak of debilitating disease was reported in September 2019.
The paralyzing and deadly infectious disease has resurfaced in the Philippines 19 years after the fitness government reported a case of polio in South Lanao last year. The World Health Organization declared the country polio-free in 2000.
The return of polio has led the Department of Health to develop its polio immunization program.
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