LMP chief to mayors: Prioritize routine immunization

MANILA, Philippines — The leader of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) has called on mayors to prioritize routine immunization after the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said around 67 million children globally missed out entirely or partially on vaccines against measles, rubella and polio from 2019 to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The success of the vaccination programs relies heavily on the implementation of local government units (LGUs), according to LMP president and La Paz, Abra Mayor JB Bernos.

“There should be contextualization in every LGU. There is no one-size-fits all program as it is different in every municipality or locality, so let’s localize programs,” Bernos said.

LMP secretary general and Barcelona, Sorsogon Mayor Cynthia Falcotelo-Fortes gave assurance that municipalities would continue to advocate the importance of catch-up immunization.

“In the case of vaccination, yes, the DOH (Department of Health) crafted and funded programs cascaded to municipalities, from the supply of the vaccines to disease awareness support under its Healthy Pilipinas campaign, but these are not the only programs out there that LGUs actualize,” Fortes said.

“Municipal LGUs have a big pie of programs on health and a myriad of local services. Vaccination is but a slice of that pie. Prioritization is key. Routine immunization should rank high in the order of priorities,” she added.

Municipal LGUs, including Barcelona, bring immunization closer to the people, according to Fortes.

“We don’t oblige them to come to the RHU (rural health unit). We strategize, cluster barangays and schedule immunization for wider reach,” she said.

Philippine General Hospital Department of Pediatrics professor and Infectious and Tropical Disease chief Dr. Ana Ong-Lim underscored the need to work double-time on increasing childhood vaccination in the country.

“Most of our immunization coverage is roughly about 50 percent compared with our target of 90 percent, which is conservative. We need to catch up,” Ong-Lim said.

Based on DOH records, routine immunization went down to an all-time low of 48.5 percent in 2021 following the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it recovered to 62.9 percent last year.

Ong-Lim warned that if vaccination rates continue to be low, children are at constant risk of contracting infectious diseases like measles, influenza, polio and pneumonia.

“If many are not protected, they will become sources of transmission,” she said.

Fortes acknowledged that there are barriers on the ground that make it challenging for municipalities to improve vaccination rate.

“To be honest, one is parents’ behavior. There are younger parents who think that vaccines are not safe. Proper messaging to the public that vaccines are safe, so on the part of the LGUs, we do continuing advocacy,” she said.

Meanwhile, the DOH has set in motion a month-long nationwide immunization activity.

In a social media post, the DOH reminded parents and guardians to have their children vaccinated against measles-rubella and polio.

The activity started yesterday and will run until May 31.

The DOH advised parents “to coordinate with the nearest health center in their respective areas to know the vaccination schedule.”

At the same time, the agency said it recognizes LGUs’ efforts to make the immunization activity successful.

“LGUs may choose to provide incentives to parents or guardians to convince the latter to bring their children to routine immunization,” DOH Undersecretary Eric Tayag said at a recent press conference.

“We will just leave it to LGUs if they plan on giving out incentives, big or small, to parents in their respective areas to encourage them to have their children vaccinated,” Tayag added.

Local officials know best the situation in their cities and municipalities and what should be done, according to the DOH official.

The “Chikiting Ligtas” campaign targets to give measles and rubella vaccines to 9.5 million children immediately, and the bivalent oral polio vaccine to 11.5 million children, according to the DOH.

The supplemental immunization activity aims to prevent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases in the country. – Rhodina Villanueva