MANILA, Philippines- The data of fully immunized children or FIC in the country decreased this year compared to previous years, the Department of Health or DOH said.
In the press briefing, DOH-OIC Maria Rosario Vergeire said that the coverage for FIC is 62.9 percent where the target is 95 percent.
“When comparing the data with previous years, the data for this is decreasing also when we look at our measles vaccination we see the same,” said Vergeire.
According to Vergeire, the measles vaccination is the last thing given to children so that a child can be said to be fully immunized.
Vergeire added, in the most recent meeting he said with international partners and the World Health Organization or WHO and UNICEF, based on the data, there are almost 3 million children who have not received any dose of the measles vaccine.
That is why the WHO and UNICEF have warned that there is a need to intensify routine immunization in the country because there may be an impending outbreak of measles in the country next year if procedures are not done.
“After we had a meeting with WHO and UNICEF, we immediately convened our implementing units because we need to strengthen our routine immunization,” added Vergeire.
Vergeire further emphasized that the local government units have a lot of help to increase the level of vaccination among our youth.
He said vaccinations have decreased not only because of the hesitancy of parents but because we all know that we have restrictions where many people are not able to go out to vaccinate their children. Jocelyn Tabangcura-Domenden
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