Palace wants swift measures vs polio

We know how contagious the polio virus is especially among children, so we really need to step up action to stop and reverse this

In the wake of the Resurgence of polio in the country, Malacañang has directed the Department of Health (DoH) to take swift measures to arrest the crippling and potentially deadly infectious disease,

It likewise called on parents to have their kids vaccinated to protect them from the paralyzing illness.

“It’s very disturbing that after 19 years, there have been findings of the presence of polio here,” Cabinet Secretary Karlo Alexi Nograles said in a recent interview with Palace reporters.

“We know how contagious the polio virus is especially among children, so we really need to step up action to stop and reverse this.”

The Palace official went on by saying that the reemergence of polio, 19 years after the Philippines was declared polio-free, and the DoH’s declaration of an outbreak will be one of the top agenda in the next Cabinet meeting.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III earlier this week declared an outbreak following an initial confirmation of a case in Lanao del Sur where it left a three-year-old girl paralyzed.

Another case of polio was confirmed, this time in a five-year-old boy from Laguna.

The DoH cited the public’s fear of vaccination, supposedly because of the Dengvaxia scare, as the main reason for the epidemic.

“We know that the vaccine being administered by the Department of Health is free, so it’s just a matter of convincing the parents, their families, their children to get vaccinated,” Nograles stated.

The Health department has already launched an anti-polio vaccination program, with the jump off point in Tondo, Manila where an environmental sample tested positive for the vaccine-deficient polio strain.