WITH the recent outbreak of measles in the United States and the increasing number of pertussis (whooping cough) patients in Quezon City and Pasig City, issues connected to vaccines and immunization are again revived in public discourse.
Even after the Philippines and the rest of the world survived COVID-19 with the help of vaccines developed by Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Sputnik, and Pfizer, many people are still left holding on to their personal belief that vaccines are overrated or worse, unnecessary.
One would think that our experience with COVID-19 should already erase whatever doubts are remaining in the public consciousness about the vaccines that were manufactured by reliable multinationals. The people’s trust in the efficacy of vaccines was somehow eroded this past decade because of the Dengvaxia controversy, followed by several unfortunate happenings in the use, distribution and application of COVID-19 vaccines.
With the rise in pertussis cases, the Department of Health (DOH) is now working on bringing back the “golden years” of immunization in the Philippines, in which people are not afraid of getting inoculated, according to Health Undersecretary and spokesperson Dr. Eric Tayag.
`We are confident that the lessons of COVID-19 are not totally lost, are taken to heart and made even sharper, for use in the next epidemic, if one is forthcoming.’
Dr. Tayag said the DOH wants to bring back the country’s prominence as having at least 90 percent immunization coverage. Tayag said immunization coverage was high in the Philippines when there was a campaign to eliminate polio under the “Oplan Alis Disease” campaign.
Tayag recalled that the Philippines received recognition from other countries when it attained no less than 90 percent vaccine coverage during the anti-polio campaign implemented by then Health Secretary Juan Flavier. Tayag said the DOH is now trying to explain to the public the benefits of immunization as he noted the people are now doubting the program’s safety and efficacy due to the Dengvaxia scare.
It is indeed sad that when the Dengvaxia scandal happened, the country’s vaccination coverage of 75 to 85 percent was reduced to 60 percent, and it took the health department some serious effort to regain the lost level of public confidence. According to Dr. Tayag, immunization is “now getting back to normalcy because the people have slowly regained their trust and confidence in vaccines when the country was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
We believe the DOH is succeeding in its campaign to ramp up the nation’s immunization coverage. Experts consider the coverage as already high since the current record does not cover initiatives of the private sector which is also conducting inoculation drives against certain diseases, side by side with the government.
We note that the health department is now closely coordinating with the Philippine Pediatric Society and other private entities, which recorded around 10 to 20 percent of their inoculation drive, bringing the country’s coverage to around 60 to 70 percent. It is not only vaccine coverage that is important, but also the availability of these vaccines in the country.
In this regard, the DOH is expecting additional doses of vaccines against pertussis by June this year, as the bulk of the vaccine supply — 1,500 doses — was given to Quezon City. The Calabarzon region and the Visayas are also in need of these vaccines and should be prioritized as soon as these vaccines are available.
Filipinos who are lucky to survive the desolation of COVID-19 pandemic that brought havoc to the general population would expect that the DOH is on top of the situation this time around.
We are confident that the lessons of COVID-19 are not totally lost, are taken to heart and made even sharper, for use in the next epidemic, if one is forthcoming.
