The Department of Health and Department of Education kick off the revived Bakuna Eskwela program at the Dr. Alejandro Albert Elementary School in Manila on October 7, 2024. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News 

MANILA — The Department of Health-Metro Manila Center for Health Development (DOH-MMCHD) said Tuesday it would ramp up efforts to increase immunization rates of children in Metro Manila after failing to reach its inoculation targets last September. 

In a press conference, Arnold Louie Alina of MMCHD’s Family Health Cluster said that the region only achieved 51.99 percent coverage in terms of fully immunized children (FIC) at age one. A fully immunized child is one who has received all necessary vaccines for a certain age group. 

So far, no region has achieved FIC vaccination rates of over 53 percent.

In October, the DOH revived its school-based immunization program with the goal of protecting as much as 4.8 million children nationwide from vaccine-preventable diseases. 

DOH aims to vaccinate 4.8M learners as school-based immunization returns

Based on DOH data, the regional office aims to immunize over 167,200 grade one students with measles, rubella, tetanus and diphtheria vaccines and 180,563 grade seven students for the same types of vaccines. The targets include some 83,000 grade four female students for the human papilomavirus (HPV) vaccine which protects against cervical cancer. 

However, as of October 23, only over 23,000 grade one students have received the measles and rubella vaccine, while another 23,000 got the tetanus, diptheria shots.  The figure for grade seven students is even lower with only over 10,000 receiving doses for both vaccine types. Meanwhile, less than 10,000 grade four female students have received protection from HPV. 

Aside from the long lockdowns during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, DOH-MMCHD Director Dr. Rio Magpantay attributed the challenges to vaccination to misinformation from people with anti-vaccination beliefs. 

“Minsan ang mga vulnerable na nakakabasa ng information ay galing sa antivaxxers at dun sila naniniwala. Yan ang gusto namin tutukan, paano ba malalabanan ang info from those against vaccination,” he said. 

(Sometimes those who read information from antivaxxers believe them. That’s what we want to focus on. How do we fight the misinformation from those against vaccination.)

Some parents also tend to outrightly refuse vaccination services from local governments and other partners due to conflicts in schedule. 

“The real education comes from the mother. Dapat alam nila ang advantage ng vaccination. Wala na tayong ibang magagawa kundi hanapin yung mga bata at ipabatid sa kanilang mga nanay ang kahalagahan ng bakuna,” Magpantay said. 

(Mothers should know the advantages of vaccination. We can’t do anything else but to look for unvaccinated children and make their mothers understand why this is extremely important.)

From November 18 to December 16, the MMCHD will have health workers conduct house-to-house and facility-based vaccinations. Temporary vaccination sites will also be identified by the local government. 

Aside from children aged zero to 23 moths, pregnant women and adults aged 60 years and above can also get vaccinated during the said period against tetanus, diphtheria and influenza.