The Department of Health- Metro Manila Center for Health Development (DOH-MMCHD) opened a catch-up immunization program on Tuesday, aiming to protect 107,995 children in the capital from vaccine-preventable diseases.
The program focuses on children aged 0 to 23 months in the National Capital Region who failed to receive doses of BCG, Hepatitis B, bivalent oral polio vaccine (bOPV), pentavalent vaccine, pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV), and measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
Pregnant women will be immunized for tetanus-diphtheria (TD), and people 60 and older will receive additional vaccines.
The huge catch-up immunization campaign was launched at the Caloocan Sports Complex in Caloocan City, and over 250 children, pregnant women, and the elderly attended.
The initiative, which will continue until December 16, seeks to improve fully vaccinated kid coverage in Metro Manila to 95% while decreasing the number of zero-dose children in the region.
Earlier last month, the DOH-MMCHD stated that its achievements for the school-based nationwide vaccination program were below expectations.
The “Bakuna-Eskwela” campaign aims to vaccinate school-aged children in all public schools in the country against vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, and cervical cancer.
As of November 17, 36,424 Grade 1 pupils in Metro Manila have gotten the measles-rubella (MR) vaccine, with 37,463 receiving the tetanus-diphtheria (TD) vaccine.
In Grade 7, 24,017 pupils obtained the MR vaccine, while 24,003 got the TD vaccine. There were 18,635 female pupils in fourth grade who received the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine.