BAGUIO CITY – The Philippine Pediatric Society (PPS) Northeastern Luzon chapter assured its all-out support to the ongoing aggressive implementation of the government’s immunization program, especially for the younger population, to achieve the targeted 95 percent vaccination rate and contribute in protecting children from contracting vaccine-preventable illnesses that might compromise their health condition.
PPS Northeastern Luzon chapter president Dr. Amelen Palanca said that the organization and the health department were able to develop an application that will allow the latter to have access on the children being immunized by pediatricians in their private clinics to contribute in realizing the said target.
Earlier, the health department entered into a memorandum of agreement with the different organizations of health professionals to allow the government to have access to the data on the number of individuals that opted to be vaccinated in the private clinics to contribute in improving the low reported vaccination rate in the implementation of the national immunization program.
Palanca urged the people to avail of the vaccines being provided by the different health facilities or the private clinics of health professionals to allow them to have better immunity and avoid contracting vaccine-preventable illnesses considering that vaccination is a protective measure to avoid acquiring life-threatening diseases.
According to her, there is nothing wrong in the sharing of data of those who had been vaccinated in the private clinics of health professionals because they want to contribute in the realization of the universally-accepted 95 percent of the population who must be vaccinated to avoid acquiring vaccine-preventable illnesses.
On the other hand, the group is also eying the inclusion of the anti-dengue vaccine, once given the license by the Food and Drug Administration, in the national immunization program to ensure that Filipinos, especially the members of the vulnerable sectors, will have access to the vaccines that will help in preventing them from contracting vaccine-preventable diseases.
The health department had been having a difficult time achieving the targeted 95 percent of the population who must be vaccinated with the available vaccines under the national immunization program to ensure their protection from the increase in vaccine-preventable illnesses that persist in the environment.
The vaccine hesitancy of Filipinos was aggravated during the COVID-19 pandemic where misinformation and disinformation were prevalent on the negative effects of the COVID-19 vaccines which had a negative impact on the sustainable implementation of the government’s immunization program that had been also affected by the pandemic.
The World Health Organization ordered countries to implement various programs to allow them to catch up with the vaccination of their respective populace who were not able to get their regular vaccine doses at the height of the pandemic to sustain the efficacy of the vaccines in preventing the people from acquiring the vaccine-preventable diseases in the future. By Dexter A. See
