PALO, Leyte — The Department of Health (DoH) in Eastern Visayas is nearing the end of its catch-up vaccination drive against polio, with over 40 percent of the allocated vaccines still unused.

In an advisory, DoH-8 announced that the Bivalent Oral Polio Vaccine (bOPV) Catch-Up and Supplemental Immunization Activity, which began in March 2024, will conclude by the end of July.

Since the start of the program, DoH-8 reported that 257,516 doses of the bOPV, which represents 58.7 percent of the allocated vaccines, have been administered to infants in Eastern Visayas.

The bOPV protects against poliovirus types 1 and 3 but does not cover type 2 polio. Children need three doses to be fully immunized.

The catch-up vaccination drive was initiated to address gaps caused by the Covic-19 pandemic, which disrupted routine immunizations.

Approximately 600,000 children born during the pandemic were left with incomplete or missing polio vaccinations, increasing the risk of a polio outbreak.

The program aimed to ensure that at least 95 percent of infants and children aged 0-23 months received all three doses of the bOPV, and that 95 percent of children aged 24-59 months received at least one dose, regardless of their previous polio immunization status.