KORONADAL CITY (MindaNews / 27 January) – A total of 1,096,585 children in Mindanao have been vaccinated against measles and rubella a week after the Department of Health (DOH) launched the “Ligtas Tigdas” (Safe from Measles) campaign in the island.
As of January 26, DOH data showed that 214,749 children have been immunized in the Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9), 242,988 in Northern Mindanao (Region 10), 175,886 in the Davao Region (Region 11), 158,272 in Soccsksargen (Region 12), 133,967 in Caraga (Region 13), and 170,723 in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
The DOH said that 1,761,524 more children in Mindanao will be given the measles-rubella vaccines in the coming weeks.
By region, the DOH is aiming to vaccinate 308,957 children in Region 9, 280,631 in Region 10, 337,123 in Region 11, 292,978 in Region 12, 135,328 in Region 13, and 406,507 in BARMM.
The health department will issue the next dataset next Monday.
The DOH’s Ligtas Tigdas or the Measles-Rubella Vaccine Supplemental Immunization Activity (MR-SIA) for Mindanao was launched in General Santos City last January 19.
Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa said during the launching that the DOH is targeting to immunize at least 2.8 million children aged six to 59 months old all over the island.
He urged parents to have their children protected from measles and rubella.
“The benefit of measles-rubella vaccination is that the outbreak and the number of deaths and hospitalization among children will be greatly reduced,” he said in Filipino.
Herbosa said the massive vaccination campaign in Mindanao will last until February 15.
Measles is the world’s most contagious disease, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Measles infects the respiratory tract and then spreads throughout the body, and can be deadly. Symptoms include a high fever, cough, runny nose and a rash all over the body.
On the other hand, rubella, which is milder than the regular measles and called the “three-day measles,” is also a highly contagious viral disease. It spreads easily when an infected person coughs or sneezes. Most children and adults who get rubella have a mild fever and rash, a WHO briefer stated.
In the BARMM, Islamic legal scholars called on parents to have their kids vaccinated, stressing that measle-rubella vaccines are halal or permissible.
Grand Mufti Sheik Abdulrauf Guialani, executive director of Bangsamoro Darul-Ifta’, also assured the parents and the children in the region that the vaccine is safe and effective to combat the measles and rubella diseases.
“With the help of vaccination, the spread of these diseases can be prevented,” he said in Filipino. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)
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