DOH set to convene inter-agency meeting on polio
The Department of Health is convening an inter-agency meeting to discuss polio following the World Health Organization's recent emergency committee meetings on the resurgence of the crippling, potentially fatal disease in several countries.
In an interview on Wednesday, Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy, program manager of the DOH unit on Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases, said the department is working to gather key persons from the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Tourism, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the Bureau of Immigration, and the Bureau of Quarantine to discuss the DOH’s Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), which includes polio vaccinations.
“We need to strongly remind Filipinos going to countries with polio to have themselves vaccinated against the disease. And likewise, Filipinos already in countries with polio must have polio vaccinations again,” Lee Suy said.
Following the resurgence of polio cases in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, the WHO declared a “public health emergency of international concern,” according to a WHO statement released in Geneva on May 5.
The 2009 flu pandemic merited the last such designation.
“A coordinated international response is deemed essential to stop this international spread of wild poliovirus and to prevent new spread with the onset of the high transmission season in May-June 2014,” the WHO statement said.
The Philippines was only declared polio-free in October 2000, following compliance with several conditions imposed by international polio experts.
Before an area can be declared polio-free, several conditions must be satisfied such as “at least three years of zero confirmed cases due to indigenous wild poliovirus,” “excellent laboratory-based surveillance for poliovirus,” “demonstrated capacity to detect, report, and respond to imported cases of poliomyelitis,” and “assurance of safe containment of polioviruses in laboratories.”
Measles
Lee Suy also advised the public to get their children vaccinated against measles.
“In view also of the recent cases of measles, the DOH is strongly recommending to all mothers to comply fully and promptly with the expanded program on immunization schedules of their children,” Lee Suy said.
“Mothers must avail of the free vaccines offered by the government at the barangay health centers,” he added.
From Jan.1 to Dec. 14, 2013, there were 1,724 measles cases, including 21 deaths, the DOH’s National Epidemiology Center has reported.
The majority of cases were in Metro Manila, with 416 confirmed measles cases in the entire 2013, according to the partial report of the DOH-National Capital Region. This figure is 1,568 percent higher than the 25 confirmed cases in the region in 2012.
Immunization
In September the DOH will launch a mass immunization campaign that will cover some 11.7 million children below five years old nationwide.
A potentially deadly infectious disease, polio is caused by a virus that spreads from person to person, invading the brain and spinal cord and causing paralysis.
Because polio has no cure, vaccination offers the “best way” to protect a person from being infected by the virus and the only way to stop the disease from spreading.
Immunization experts have observed that one of the causes of re-emergence of polio virus was the lowering of a country’s immunization rate.
Health experts strongly urged polio-free countries to conduct an “intensive and continuous aggressive polio immunization” to help them combat polio resurgence. — BM, GMA News
In an interview on Wednesday, Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy, program manager of the DOH unit on Emerging and Re-emerging Infectious Diseases, said the department is working to gather key persons from the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Tourism, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, the Bureau of Immigration, and the Bureau of Quarantine to discuss the DOH’s Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI), which includes polio vaccinations.
“We need to strongly remind Filipinos going to countries with polio to have themselves vaccinated against the disease. And likewise, Filipinos already in countries with polio must have polio vaccinations again,” Lee Suy said.
Following the resurgence of polio cases in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, the WHO declared a “public health emergency of international concern,” according to a WHO statement released in Geneva on May 5.
The 2009 flu pandemic merited the last such designation.
“A coordinated international response is deemed essential to stop this international spread of wild poliovirus and to prevent new spread with the onset of the high transmission season in May-June 2014,” the WHO statement said.
The Philippines was only declared polio-free in October 2000, following compliance with several conditions imposed by international polio experts.
Before an area can be declared polio-free, several conditions must be satisfied such as “at least three years of zero confirmed cases due to indigenous wild poliovirus,” “excellent laboratory-based surveillance for poliovirus,” “demonstrated capacity to detect, report, and respond to imported cases of poliomyelitis,” and “assurance of safe containment of polioviruses in laboratories.”
Measles
Lee Suy also advised the public to get their children vaccinated against measles.
“In view also of the recent cases of measles, the DOH is strongly recommending to all mothers to comply fully and promptly with the expanded program on immunization schedules of their children,” Lee Suy said.
“Mothers must avail of the free vaccines offered by the government at the barangay health centers,” he added.
From Jan.1 to Dec. 14, 2013, there were 1,724 measles cases, including 21 deaths, the DOH’s National Epidemiology Center has reported.
The majority of cases were in Metro Manila, with 416 confirmed measles cases in the entire 2013, according to the partial report of the DOH-National Capital Region. This figure is 1,568 percent higher than the 25 confirmed cases in the region in 2012.
Immunization
In September the DOH will launch a mass immunization campaign that will cover some 11.7 million children below five years old nationwide.
A potentially deadly infectious disease, polio is caused by a virus that spreads from person to person, invading the brain and spinal cord and causing paralysis.
Because polio has no cure, vaccination offers the “best way” to protect a person from being infected by the virus and the only way to stop the disease from spreading.
Immunization experts have observed that one of the causes of re-emergence of polio virus was the lowering of a country’s immunization rate.
Health experts strongly urged polio-free countries to conduct an “intensive and continuous aggressive polio immunization” to help them combat polio resurgence. — BM, GMA News
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