DOH to hold catch-up immunization in Metro Manila

The Department of Health- Metro Manila Center for Health Development (DOH-MMCHD) said Tuesday it will conduct a catch-up immunization until mid-December as its accomplishments for the school-based nationwide vaccination program is still below their target.

NCR national immunization program coordinator Arnold Louie Alina said they are aiming to immunize 167,260 Grade 1 students and 180,563 Grade 7 students against measles-rubella (MR) and tetanus-diphtheria (TD) in over 800 schools in Metro Manila.

They are also looking at having 83,857 Grade 4 female students get the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.

However, as of October 25, Alina noted that for Grade 1, only 23,263 students received the MR vaccine and 23,276 got the TD vaccine. For Grade 7, 10,402 got the MR vaccine and 10,372 received the TD jab.

There were also only 9,738 Grade 4 female learners who received the HPV vaccine.

“Medyo kailangan pa nating pataasin ‘yung ating accomplishment o ‘yung ating number na nabakunahan in terms of school-based immunization kaya naman po ngayon, we are planning to conduct and we will conduct our big catch-up immunization in NCR,” Alina said.

(We still need to increase our accomplishment or the number of learners who have been vaccinated under our school-based immunization that is why we will conduct our big catch-up immunization in National Capital Region.)

Under the catch-up immunization which will be from November 18 to December 16, 2024, health workers will bring the vaccines to houses in order to encourage more children to get vaccinated. There will also be fixed posts in health facilities, as well as temporary posts, such as malls and train stations, that will be identified by local government units.

The target eligible population for this initiative is the 0 to 23 months old children, pregnant women, and adults aged 60 and above.

On October 7, the DOH and Department of Education launched the school-based nationwide vaccination program “Bakuna-Eskwela.”

The program seeks to vaccinate school-age children against vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs) such as measles, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, and cervical cancer in all public schools nationwide.

According to the DOH, the program seeks to immunize at least 3.8 million public school students in Grade 1 and Grade 7 with measles-rubella and tetanus-diphtheria vaccines.

The Health Department also seeks to immunize 973,930 female Grade 4 students in selected public schools with the HPV vaccine that protects against HPV and cervical cancer. —RF, GMA Integrated News