TACLOBAN CITY – Parents are reluctant to have their schoolchildren inoculated, which would prevent them from getting vaccine-preventable diseases in the future.
The two-month campaign for school-based immunization should have ended in November, but less than half of the target students in Eastern Visayas were inoculated, with Tacloban registering the least accomplishment among the six provinces and two independent cities in the region.
Nilo Eder, Education Program Supervisor at the Tacloban Schools District, said the schools are having trouble convincing parents to vaccinate their children.
“We cannot have the children vaccinated without the consent of the parents,” Eder told DAILY TIRBUNE.
The school-based immunization program, launched in the region on October 7, targets immunizing at least 86,852 Grade 1 learners and 102,792 Grade 7 students against Measles-Rubella (MR) and Tetanus-Diphtheria (TD), and 49,546 female learners in Grade 4 with the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which will protect them against cervical cancer.
Latest data from the Department of Health regional office shows that, as of November 25, only 40,971 Grade 1 learners received the MR vaccine, and 41,312 received the TD vaccine. For Grade 7 students, 33,532 were immunized for both MR and TD.
On the other hand, 27,402 female learners in Grade 4 received the HPV vaccine. Ormoc City registered the highest number of vaccine takers, with 4,479 learners, which is twice its target of 2,352.
In all target school levels, Tacloban City registered the lowest number of takers, with 720 learners in Grade 1 out of its 3,859 learners; 745 in Grade 7 out of 4,832 target students; and 720 female learners in Grade 4 out of 2,438 target learners.
Eder said the low turnout of the school-based immunization was the subject of the management meeting of DepEd Tacloban last week.
“We are bothered by the low turnout because of its long-term implications on the health of our present learners,” he said.
Eder said the DepEd Tacloban division will coordinate with the Tacloban City Health Office to mobilize barangay health workers to educate parents on the importance of having their children immunized against vaccine-preventable diseases.
He said the Tacloban City Schools Division will also go around to different radio stations to convince parents to agree to have their children vaccinated.
