26 samples from MM, Davao positive for polio virus
Twenty-six environmental samples collected in Metro Manila and Davao City have yielded poliovirus Types 1 and 2, the Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the findings were confirmed by the National Polio Laboratory of the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and Japan National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID).
“The presence of the poliovirus in environmental samples implies that carriers of the virus are continuously shedding in the communities,” Duque said.
“If viruses continue to spread from person-to-person in areas with low immunization coverage, the polio virus evolves and regains the ability to cause paralysis,” he added.
The 26 positive specimens are part of the 142 environmental samples collected by the DOH from sewage treatment plants and bodies of water from areas without treatment plants.
It also includes the two positive samples taken from waterways in Manila and Davao City before the DOH had declared the reemergence of polio in the country last September.
Polio is spread through oral-fecal route or when an infected individual discharges feces that get into the environment, particularly water.
Data showed that of the 26 positive samples, 25 were collected in Metro Manila while one was from Davao City from July 1 to Nov. 6.
Other samples were taken from various sites in Cordillera Administrative Region, Region III, Region IV-A, Region XI, Region XII, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and Region VII as part of regular surveillance nationwide.
The report came after the DOH’s announcement last Monday that it had documented the country’s 8th polio case, a nine-year-old girl from Basilan who was not vaccinated against the disease.
Vaccinate your children
Duque reiterated the DOH’s appeal for all children under five to be vaccinated completely against polio.
He said the goal is to immunize 95 percent of all eligible children to achieve herd immunity, where even those unvaccinated are protected.
“This is why it is of utmost importance that we vaccinate all children below five years old (0-59 months), regardless of their vaccination status,” he added.
Last Monday, the DOH kicked off the third round of anti-polio mass vaccination activities in Metro Manila and the entire Mindanao. This will end on Dec. 7.
Health workers are going house to house to administer the oral polio vaccine (OPV) among children. There are also immunization activities in the community, particularly the barangay health centers.
The DOH is targeting to give OPV to some 1.27 million children in Metro Manila and 5.2 million children in Mindanao below five years old, whether or not they have received the vaccines in the past.
As part of the outbreak response, the DOH is also working with the United Nations Children’s Fund and World Health Organization for an intensified surveillance of acute flaccid paralysis cases which can be caused by polio, among others.