TAWI-TAWI, Philippines – Most children in the
Philippines have never seen a polio victim. The last polio
case was recorded in 1993, and in 2000 the Philippines was
certified polio-free.
The government
is going to great lengths to keep it that way. Polio is a
highly contagious disease that causes permanent disability
and even death.
Asked if she knew
what polio was, Anita Suntay, a mother in Mindanao, Southern
Philippines, replied, “I don’t know what polio
is. If we had not gone to the health centre, we would not
have known what it was.”
Another mother
replied vaguely, “Polio is when the child’s legs
become small.” Recently, close neighbour, Indonesia,
reported a polio outbreak. Polio-free for the past 10 years,
Indonesia suddenly recorded over 200 polio cases in 2005.
To prevent entry
of the poliovirus, the Department of Health, with assistance
from UNICEF and World Health Organization (WHO), has embarked
on a supplemental polio vaccination campaign taking place
simultaneously with Indonesia’s anti-polio campaign.
The Philippines’
supplemental campaign is focused in the Autonomous Region
of Muslim Mindanao and Zamboanga City.
The predominantly
Muslim region, made up mostly of remote islands, is constantly
affected by armed conflict. It is also one of the poorest
parts of the Philippines, with some of the lowest rates of
routine immunization coverage.
Due to its proximity
to Indonesia, population movement into the Philippines and
back is routine and often un-monitored. The risk is high for
the poliovirus to enter the Philippines in this region.
“Polio is
a virus that likes to travel,” UNICEF Country Representative
for the Philippines, Dr. Nicholas Alipui, said. “As
long as there is polio anywhere in the world, children in
the Philippines cannot truly ever be free of polio.”
UNICEF is providing
US$170,000 for oral polio vaccines, training of vaccinators,
and monitoring.
The government
is taking advantage of a ceasefire to ensure the safe passage
of health workers into even the remotest villages. Health
centres are providing the oral polio vaccine and, when necessary,
health workers are going from house to house to reach all
underfive children.
“We hope
to be able to cover about 650,000 children and give them oral
polio vaccine,” Health Secretary Dr. Francisco Duque
said.
The campaign augments
routine immunization, which targets 95 per cent of infants
with three doses of the polio vaccine. Surveillance and investigation
of polio-like symptoms also continues to detect possible polio
cases as soon as possible.
“If an importation
occurs here in the Philippines, it will be a major setback
for the health system, and also for the whole effort here
in the Philippines, which for over 10 years has been polio-free,”
warned WHO Representative in the Philippines, Dr. Jean Marc
Olivé.
It only takes drops
of polio vaccine to protect a child from the dreaded disease.
If the campaign is successful and high routine immunization
coverage is sustained, polio will remain a vague memory from
the distant past.
# # #
For further information or to arrange interviews, please contact:
Dale
Rutstein
UNICEF Manila, 901 0177 or 0917 866 4969, drutstein@unicef.org
Alexis Rodrigo
UNICEF Manila, 901 0173 or 0917 858 9447, arodrigo@unicef.org
|
