DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The City Health Office (CHO) would immunize a total of 82,365 elementary and secondary students from different public schools here.
The school-based immunization would give booster shots of Measles, Rebulla, Tetanus-Diphtheria (MRTD) vaccine to grades 1 and 7 students and Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine to grade 4 female students.
Dr. Julinda Acosta, chief technical division of CHO, said that the total number of students were provided by the Department of Education (DepEd) based on the enrolment as of July.
Grade 1 students number 33,193, grade 7 33,299, while female grade 4 students 15,873.
Acosta said a booster dose provides higher protection over a long period of time after primary series.
The three vaccines (MR, TD, and HPV) were introduced as an integral immunization strategy toward the elimination of measles and tetanus and the control of rebulla and diphtheria, while HPV was introduced as one component in the comprehensive strategy for the prevention of cervical cancer.
The HPV vaccines were said to be more effective if delivered at a specific age, 9-13 years old (grade 4 female students).
Also, Acosta said, they gave an orientation among parents of the students last Monday to assure them that the vaccines are safe for the children and to ask their consent for the vaccination.
“There were parents in doubt because of the Dengvaxia issue. But we assured them that it is far different from that case. We already addressed their concerns prior to the actual vaccination,” she said.
In 2013, the Department of Health (DOH), in collaboration with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and DepEd, through their various local health units conducted the first national school-based adolescent immunization for the newly introduced vaccines among the students of selected public elementary and secondary schools.
The DOH has allocated s P100 million budget for this year’s school-based immunization.
The CHO will be launching the immunization program on Friday, August 10 at Magallanes Elementary school. (davaotoday.com)
