2,000 Aeta children receive anti-polio, measles shots

MABALACAT CITY, Pampanga, Philippines – Three buses and a coaster picked up Aeta children and their mothers from villages here for their first measles and polio vaccinations over the weekend.

More than 2,000 children, mostly Aetas aged five and below, were given food in Barangay Calumpang and other venues, where immunization activities were also conducted,  the state-owned Clark Development Corp. (CDC) said.

Earlier, Health Secretary Enrique Ona and his team administered free measles-rubella and oral polio vaccines to Aeta children in San Simon town.

Rommel Narciso of the CDC community affairs department said most of the Aetas were from the villages of Marcos, Macapagal and Calumpang, all in Mabalacat.

Others received the vaccines in Barangay Sapang Cacuted in Angeles City.

A group from CDC led by Carmencita Dobles assisted Ona’s team in administering the vaccines.

“The immunization activities were part of a nationwide campaign of the Department of Health to vaccinate 23 million children,” said Joronny Gladys Lingat, nurse of the rural health unit-3.

Lingat said measles cases this year increased unexpectedly, affecting even those who have received a first dose of the vaccine.

“For most Aetas, the recent vaccinations were their first,” she said.

Lingat said a child is required to get a second dose of vaccine as the first gives only 80 percent protection.