TO help in the awareness campaign following the measles outbreak, Sen. Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao has teamed up with the Department of Health (DOH) in a television ad dubbed “Knock-Out Tigdas.”
The TV ad urges parents and caregivers to bring their children to health centers for free measles vaccination.
Pacquiao’s boost to the vaccine program comes on the heels of a personal pitch by President Duterte himself, appealing to parents to have their children immunized as alarm grows over the flare-up of measles, which can be quickly spread through the air, and the complications of which can be fatal.
Over the weekend, the DOH campaign also got a boost from the Philippine Red Cross (PRC), which conducted its own immunization drive in Manila’s urban poor enclave in Baseco, in Tondo.
A total of 1,307 children in Baseco were given the vaccine for the first phase of PRC’s community-based measles-control program.
PRC deployed 250 volunteers composed of doctors, nurses, health workers and logistics assistants to conduct house-to-house vaccination and station-based operations in Corazon Aquino Health Center, in partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
PRC Chairman Richard Gordon said the vaccination drive mirrors the organization’s fast actions to support efforts to fill the immunization gap in the country.
“We don’t stop at providing logistics support in overcrowded hospitals. We are working with the Department of Health and the local government to immunize the children. We are doing the mass vaccination here in Manila first because this is the hot spot of the outbreak,” Gordon said.
PRC was scheduled to continue vaccinating children in Port Area, Manila, on Monday.
Pacquiao, Duque appeal
In the TV ad, meanwhile, Pacquiao and Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III underscored the importance of vaccination to prevent measles cases and deaths.
As of February 16, 2019, measles cases nationwide have reached 8,443 with 136 deaths. Most (49 percent) deaths occurred in the one to four years age group, of which 113/136 are unvaccinated. Earlier, the DOH and the Department of Education (DepEd) also joined hands to help protect schoolchildren against measles.
Duque said they enlisted the DepEd’s assistance in immunizing school-age children as part of its Measles Outbreak Response.
The two agencies agreed to establish a task force to institute and coordinate monitoring mechanisms in schools and guidelines on information dissemination to strengthen the implementation of Outbreak Response Immunization.
“The Department of Health is actively working with other government agencies to address the Measles outbreak. I’m grateful to Secretary Briones and the whole Department of Education for their cooperation and continued support,” Duque said.
The DepEd shall gather essential data on measles cases from schools, collaborate with the health-center staff to monitor absent pupils and conduct measles evaluation by categorizing children as vaccinated, doubtful or not vaccinated.
The DOH, on the other hand, will provide the DepEd with more health-promotion and communication materials regarding measles and measles vaccination for schools. Duque has continuously appealed to parents to vaccinate their children as he also appealed to the public to rebuild their trust and confidence in vaccines.
“Vaccines were long proven to be effective, and I am quite sure that all of us sometime in our lives have been recipients of these vaccines, which had protected us from various diseases,” he said, adding that Vitamin A supplements and oral polio vaccines are also given to children six to 59 months old.
Red Cross initiative
Aside from vaccinating children, PRC also took time to educate parents on the importance of vaccination to protect their children from acquiring contagious diseases. Hot meals were served to 1,733 parents and children who participated in the program.
The community-based measles-control program is just one of PRC’s responses to the measles outbreak. PRC installed measles care units or outdoor hospital wards in five hospitals, namely San Lazaro Hospital in Manila, Philippine General Hospital in Manila, Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center in Marikina, Cainta Municipal Hospital in Rizal and Quirino Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City.
These measles care units are supplied with beds, blankets, pillows, chairs, air-conditioners, water and hygiene facilities, and portable toilets. As of February 18, the measles care units have served a total of 443 patients infected with measles.
Image credits: Contributed Photo