Anti – measles, polio campaign gets Rotary backing

PARENTS of children that have yet to undergo the measles rubella and polio vaccine have nothing to fear in terms of the quality of vaccine to be used.

Tolits Villanueva, president of Rotary Club of Baguio Summer Capital (RCBSC) said parents should not be alarmed about the quality of vaccines provided by the Department of Health due to wrong information.

“What Rotary pushes for is for newly born children to undergo vaccination so depending on our partners if they would be able to pinpoint a barangay needs help for a specific vaccine which in turn we act on. The end polio movement is just one of the vaccination campaign that we continue to pursue among others like during the meningococemia pandemic that happened in Baguio City,” Villanueva said.

RCBSC chapter president and Doctor Virgilio Bautista meanwhile reiterated the importance of media organizations in helping deliver the correct information to the public particularly on vaccine preventable diseases like measles and polio.

“The people need to be aware because the more the people are aware particularly here in the Cordillera Region, then they will be more confident that what we are doing is for the good of the community. The advantage of Rotary here in northern and central Luzon is that we have around 95 clubs doing the same thing in their own areas, which is why it is better to work with other groups rather than us doing it alone particularly on informing home public,”

Bautista added.

From January to September this year, DOH - Cordillera Administrative Region ( CAR) recorded 395 measles cases in the region with zero deaths as compared to 1,059 cases recorded in the same period last year with five deaths, having a 62% decrease.

DOH-CAR is part of the phase 1 of the nationwide measles rubella polio vaccination campaign which is set to conduct its regional vaccination campaign from October 26 to November 25, 2020, while the second phase is set to be conducted in February next year.