“It was likewise a wake-up call for government to reinvigorate and speed up its immunization program. Statistics on children immunized with polio had declined through the years.

The breaking news last month about the polio virus surfacing in Lanao del Sur had residents worried. They are now the subject of unflattering publicity. After being headlined for months in world media for the siege and armageddon-like destruction of Marawi City, the province’s capital, they are back in the limelight for another disaster. Their worry over the reported animated but clandestine recruitment being waged by remnants of the IS-affiliated Maute mujahideens is compounded by a dreaded epidemic thought to have been eradicated 19 years ago.

Polio is a highly communicable disease transmitted through what they call oro-fecal routes. “It is caused by poliovirus and may result in paralysis and even death.” It has no known cure but is vaccine-preventable. Outbreak response of immunization is conducted by giving three doses of monovalent oral polio vaccine to children five years old and below.

Readers, I write this piece to assuage the disquiet of a daughter-doctor, Bai Pindao. After hurdling the medical licensure examination, she chose to perform missionary and charitable works instead of a postgraduate or specialized study like her sibling. She is a rural health physician assigned in a remote area. She worried that the news might create an impression that rural physicians like her in the province are guilty of nonfeasance or malfeasance in the performance of their duty. Among the myriad of tasks, they are frontline workers in charge of the immunization campaign. She claimed it is unfair to judge them without knowing the facts surrounding the issue.

Her story: the parents of the three-year old victim went to Metro Manila to seek greener pastures. She was born and raised in the city but returned back home recently to Marogong, Lanao del Sur. Upon investigation, the parents admitted the child was unvaccinated while growing up in the metropolis. In fact, a sibling of the victim who lived since birth in Marogong was spared of the polio virus because she was fully immunized.

I told her that the controversy has a positive side to it. Foremost, the discovery could only mean that their monitoring and surveillance mechanism is well in place and effective. Otherwise the resurgence of the epidemic would not have been discovered until it has spread extensively. Kudos to Dr. Alinader Minalang, provincial health officer II, for his dynamic leadership and strict supervision over his rural workers.

It was likewise a wake-up call for government to reinvigorate and speed up its immunization program. Statistics on children immunized with polio had declined through the years.

Rural health workers in Lanao Sur have now reenergized their campaign for vaccination, sanitation and hygiene. In carrying out their mandate, these unheralded and unsung heroes risked their lives to reach their target clients, braved inclement weather in rainforests, took makeshift rafts to navigate rivers and hanging bridges over ravines and cliffs, rode horses and even visited both army and rebel camps to carry out vaccination. Their travails are no less than heroic.

A synchronized polio vaccination campaign is now being conducted in the province. The Department of Health as the lead agency with its global partners, the World Health Organization, United Nations Children’s Fund and non-governmental organizations like Action Against Hunger, and other offices like the Departments of the Interior and Local Government, and Social Welfare and Development and Philippine Red Cross joined hands in the renewed campaign against the reemergence of polio.

Recall that the Philippines was declared polio-free by WHO in year 2000 or 19 years ago.

It’s not a walk in the park for rural medical workers in Lanao Sur, despite their dedication and unified approach by various agencies. Foremost among the hurdles is the cloud of suspicion that hangs over everybody’s mind about the efficacy of vaccination following the Dengvaxia controversy now being investigated by the Department of Justice for alleged vaccine-related deaths.

For a while there was an issue whether vaccination is compliant with tenets of Islam. But this was put to rest when Dr. Saffrullah Dipatuan, Minister of Health of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, came out with a statement that there is a fatwa or religious edict by Islamic clerics that allows vaccination among Muslims. Still, there are extremist Wahhabis among them who would rather leave the fate of their children to Allah SWT than to vaccination.

To their credit, the rural health workers have succeeded in generating the interest and active participation of the local government units especially the barangay officials, cultural and religious leaders and the general public in mobilizing community participation in the vaccination campaign.