Red Cross targets to vaccinate 100,000 kids vs polio
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Red Cross is aiming to vaccinate 100,000 children against polio, which has re-emerged nearly two decades after the country’s last cases.
The re-emergence of vaccine-derived polio—a non-wild form of the disease—last month has triggered a mass vaccination campaign.
The Philippine Red Cross announced on Friday that is tripling the number of children it aims to immunize in a door-to-door polio vaccination campaign from 30,000 to 100,000. It has reached nearly 60,000 children.
“We’re particularly worried children under five in urban slums, rural areas, migrant families and indigenous communities who have missed out on life-saving vaccinations. It’s simply not right that these children are at risk of death or lifelong disability in the 21st century,” Sen. Richard Gordon, PRC chair, said.
The re-emergence of polio comes after the Philippines was hit by measles and dengue outbreaks earlier this year stoked by falling vaccination rates.
Chris Staines, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Philippines head, said the current outbreaks of measles and polio in the Philippines are a “serious risk.”
“There is a real danger that the situation could return these preventable diseases to being endemic. While mass immunization right now, successfully implemented, will stop the transmission, we need routine vaccination for several years to bring these diseases under control,” Staines said.
Polio can cause paralysis and can be fatal in rare cases. The disease has no cure and can only be prevented with several doses of oral and injectable vaccines. — with a report from Agence France-Presse
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