Mindanaotoday.com | DOH-10 resolves vaccine hesitancy in Lanao areas
By: URIEL QUILINGUING
Due to vaccine hesitancy, health workers could hardly hit a 60-percent vaccination coverage in Lanao del Norte for coronavirus disease the past two years, but in the past four weeks they found a way to give vaccines to combat measles, rubella, and polio diseases to 93-percent of targeted eligible children.
Physician Angelie Loren Waga-Caguioa, Department of Health-10 medical officer IV, disclosed this beyond-expectation result of the measles-rubella and oral polio vaccine supplemental immunization activity (MR-OPV-SIA) in a Philippine Information Agency-hosted forum in Cagayan de Oro on Friday, June 2, this year.
“They set daily targets, they double time the next day if targets are not met,” said Caguioa, adding that teams help each other, particularly in areas where parents need to convinced, and they get the needed support from government, private sector, and non-governmental organizations.
She said that unlike the Covid-19 vaccine, mothers in Lanao del Norte and Iligan City residents are already familiar with MR and OP vaccines, but other than this they have to be persuaded to avail of the supplemental immunization – that availing of boosters will not cause an overdose.
Routine immunization for all vaccine-preventable diseases among children was below the 95-percent targeted coverage in the two to three years, hence the need to reach out to the unvaccinated children – often done in a house-to-house campaign.
After the forum, DOH-10 Health Education and Promotion Unit Head Aian Rebollido Caridad told the Mindanao Today that they requested Maranao-speaking health workers to be with the vaccination teams in the field.
Caridad said they translated information, education, and communication materials from English or Tagalog into Maranao, just be understood and the messages – handy flipped charts and visual aids — are clear to mothers at the community level.
More than 40 percent of the over 700 thousand Lanao del Norte residents are adherents of Islam religion and are Maranao-speaking.
Caguioa said Lanao del Norte and Iligan City posted the highest immunization coverage results in Northern Mindanao with 93.89 percent and 93.98 percent, respectively — and that both are likely to achieve 95-percent herd immunity within two weeks.
MR-OPV-SIA, she said, has been extended until June 15, this year, to give vaccination teams more time to reach out to more targeted age-groups, especially those in geographically isolated and depressed areas and in “gated” houses and communities which are common in urban areas.
As of Wednesday, May 31, Northern Mindanao posted 84-percent in MR and 77-percent in OPV in vaccination performance while Cagayan de Oro, the regional capital city, barely reached 70 percent for both MR and OPV, the DOH-10 medical officer said.
“This is understandable for Cagayan de Oro because she has a big population,” Caguioa said, and as reported earlier by the City Health Office that 73,382 and 62,755 children are being targeted for MR and OPV, respectively.
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