COTABATO CITY --- Health authorities
in Maguindanao confirmed last January 17 seven new cases of polio as of January
this year, as health workers prepare for another round of massive vaccination
on January 20 up to February 2.
The new
cases have been confirmed by ground health providers, with one case each in the
towns of Shariff Saydona Mustapha, Rajah Buayan, Datu Piang, Datu Hofer, Datu
Odin Sinsuat, Datu Abdullah Sangki, and Datu Anggal Midtimbang, Maguindanao
health chief Dr. Elizabeth Samama said.
“Eight
months to four years old,” Samama said of the ages of those found positive to
have been hit by the poliovirus.
Earlier,
two confirmed polio cases, both males aged 2 and 3, were monitored in
Maguindanao.
On
January 20, more than a thousand health workers will again troop to houses
across the province to administer the second round of anti-polio vaccination to
children aged 59 months old and below.
She
said during the first round of massive vaccination last year at least 98
percent of the 195,068 children in Maguindanao (or 191,065) have received
anti-polio drops.
She
added that 4,003 of the targeted children have not been immunized because of
the refusal of their parents for anti-polio vaccination.
Samama
again appealed to all parents in Maguindanao to make their children available
for vaccination.
“Anti-polio
drops safe, no overdose with the oral polio vaccine, no side effects and the
most effective protection of children against polio,” she said, noting the
vaccines are “halal” or allowed in the Islamic faith.
“Please
make your children be protected against the poliovirus,” she told parents in
the vernacular. (EDWIN FERNANDEZ, PNA - COTABATO, MINDANAO EXPOSE')
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