[ad_1]
Manila (AFP) – The Philippines on Friday launched a program to immunize millions of children from polio after the Asian nation was hit by the first outbreak of crippling disease in nearly two decades.
The two cases, the first since 2001, came after deadly outbreaks of dengue fever and measles earlier this year, and a drop in immunization coverage due in part to mistrust fueled by the dengue vaccine scandal.
"It is unthinkable that a child will be suffering from a highly preventable disease through vaccination," said Health Secretary Francisco Duque after administering a dose of oral polio vaccine to a child at the bottom age at a ceremony in Manila.
"We continue to urge parents and caretakers of children under five, health workers and local officials to participate in the planned synchronized polio immunization in their communities," he said. added.
Polio vaccinations in the capital fell from just over 77% of targets in 2016 to less than 24% in June, making the metropolis of 13 million people at high risk of polio recurrence, said a health department.
The highly infectious virus, which can cause paralysis and even death and is not cured, has been detected in Manila's wastewater, the department said earlier, accusing poor sanitation practices.
A sickly five-year-old boy from a neighboring province of Manila was struck by the virus and began to paralyze last month, the department said Friday.
The department announced the outbreak on Thursday after polio hit a three-year-old girl in the south of the country.
According to data from the World Health Organization, a global effort to eradicate the disease has helped reduce the number of infections from over 350,000 in 1988 to 33 only last year. Only Afghanistan, Nigeria and Pakistan have failed to stop the transmission.
Health officials said the virus that hit the Philippines this year was a mutation of a weakened strain present in the oral polio vaccine, used in most countries of the world to fight the disease.
Low immunization coverage allows the virus to find a new human host, they said.
In 2016, the Philippines became the first country to use Dengvaxia, the world's first dengue vaccine, as part of a trial program involving hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren.
A controversy erupted after its French manufacturer Sanofi revealed a year later that it could worsen the symptoms in people who were not previously infected with the virus. Manila has stopped the program and banned the vaccine.
The disclosure sparked panic at the national level. Some parents claimed that the vaccine had killed their children, but a government-sponsored survey revealed no conclusive evidence of its existence.
[ad_2]
Source link