Task force to urge vaccination for Pinoys traveling to nations on WHO polio list
The Department of Health-led inter-agency task force on polio is set to formally recommend and implement “within several days” the vaccination of Filipinos, especially overseas workers, traveling to 10 countries cited by the World Health Organization as being infected with the disease.
In an interview, DOH Family Health Unit officer-in-charge Dr. Joyce Ducusin said the task force, which met on Tuesday, is also considering the setting up of polio vaccination centers at the country’s international airports to handle visitors coming from these 10 countries.
On May 5, the WHO named Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Cameroon, Equitorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Israel, Nigeria, and Somalia as countries having escalating polio cases, prompting the international health body to declare a “public health emergency of international concern.” The 2009 flu pandemic merited the last such designation.
Ducusin, who is also the DOH's immunization expert, said Filipinos bound for the 10 countries will be “strongly requested” to visit the Bureau of Quarantine offices for polio vaccination.
“While the initial targets of polio vaccination are Filipinos going to these 10 countries, eventually we hope to vaccinate a significant number, if not all, Filipinos,” she said.
“Reaching out to and vaccinating overseas Filipinos working in strife-torn countries infected by polio are posing as a challenge to us,” Ducusin added.
Checking for polio in PHL
In the Philippines, Ducusin said, the DOH is expected to strengthen its surveillance of people exhibiting “loose and floppy limbs, otherwise known as flaccid paralysis,” a symptom of polio.
Even those who have had polio vaccinations in the past are encouraged to have booster polio shots, she added.
Among the symptoms of nonparalytic polio infections are: fever, sore throat, head ache, vomiting, fatigue, back pain, neck pain, muscle tenderness, and meningitis.
Loss of reflexes, severe muscle aches or weakness, and flaccid paralysis usually worse on one side of the body are among the symptoms of paralytic polio.
Other members of the inter-agency task force on polio are 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.
The Philippines was only declared polio-free in October 2000, following compliance with several conditions imposed by international polio experts.
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 is seen by experts as the “best way” to protect a person from being infected by the virus and to stop the disease from spreading.
Immunization experts have observed that one of the causes of the re-emergence of polio is 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 the resurgence of the disease. — BM, GMA News
In an interview, DOH Family Health Unit officer-in-charge Dr. Joyce Ducusin said the task force, which met on Tuesday, is also considering the setting up of polio vaccination centers at the country’s international airports to handle visitors coming from these 10 countries.
On May 5, the WHO named Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Cameroon, Equitorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Israel, Nigeria, and Somalia as countries having escalating polio cases, prompting the international health body to declare a “public health emergency of international concern.” The 2009 flu pandemic merited the last such designation.
Ducusin, who is also the DOH's immunization expert, said Filipinos bound for the 10 countries will be “strongly requested” to visit the Bureau of Quarantine offices for polio vaccination.
“While the initial targets of polio vaccination are Filipinos going to these 10 countries, eventually we hope to vaccinate a significant number, if not all, Filipinos,” she said.
“Reaching out to and vaccinating overseas Filipinos working in strife-torn countries infected by polio are posing as a challenge to us,” Ducusin added.
Checking for polio in PHL
In the Philippines, Ducusin said, the DOH is expected to strengthen its surveillance of people exhibiting “loose and floppy limbs, otherwise known as flaccid paralysis,” a symptom of polio.
Even those who have had polio vaccinations in the past are encouraged to have booster polio shots, she added.
Among the symptoms of nonparalytic polio infections are: fever, sore throat, head ache, vomiting, fatigue, back pain, neck pain, muscle tenderness, and meningitis.
Loss of reflexes, severe muscle aches or weakness, and flaccid paralysis usually worse on one side of the body are among the symptoms of paralytic polio.
Other members of the inter-agency task force on polio are 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.
The Philippines was only declared polio-free in October 2000, following compliance with several conditions imposed by international polio experts.
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 is seen by experts as the “best way” to protect a person from being infected by the virus and to stop the disease from spreading.
Immunization experts have observed that one of the causes of the re-emergence of polio is 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 the resurgence of the disease. — BM, GMA News
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