DAVAO CITY, July 3 (PIA) – About 80,000 high school students from all public schools in Davao City will soon receive free vaccination from the Department of Health (DOH) through its School-Based Adolescent Immunization program.
Starting August 5 to September 6 this year, all first year to fourth year high school students or the Grades 7-10 in government schools in the city shall be given a booster dose of vaccines that protect them against measles, mumps, rubella (MMR), tetanus and diphtheria (Td) diseases.
This program intends to immunize adolescents aged 10 to 19 years old, considering that this sector represents as the most active group and most vulnerable to vaccine preventable diseases like measles, diphtheria and pertussis.
Dr. Raquel Montejo, medical specialist of DOH Region XI, said it is the first adolescent immunization program for the region to begin in Davao City which was found to have high cases of measles among high school students.
However, the implementing guidelines under DOH Department Memorandum No. 2013-0168 require a parental notification and consent for the students to be vaccinated.
Montejo was among the medical specialists from DOH who explained the program to various stakeholders from the government agencies, private sector and non-government organizations in the city during Tuesday’s (July 2) Partners’ Consultation Meeting on School-Based Adolescent Immunization held at the Marco Polo Hotel.
Aside from this consultation, there have been ongoing orientation activities for guidance counselors, nurses and social workers in public schools and partner-institutions, aiming to explain the guidelines and to achieve a high coverage of adolescent immunization.
Part of the implementing guidelines under DOH Department Memorandum No. 2013-0168, is a provision that MMR vaccine shall not be given to pregnant female eligible target, thus a mandate a for DOH and the Department of Education to conduct screening of all female students before immunization.
Dr. Mariblanca P. Piatos, chief of health and nutrition unit of DepEd-XI, bared that pre-screening interviews will be conducted in schools on the last two weeks of July before the actual immunization to start on August 5.
Dr. Grace Bergia of DOH-XI assured that the pre-screening papers would be kept with confidentiality, saying that not even the school’s principal would know any information from the documents.
Montejo said they have also set to train on July 5 peer educators who will serve as interviewers to provide a comfortable atmosphere and to gain the trust and openness of the female students during the pre-screening interviews.
The medical specialists, in a press conference during the consultation meeting, clarified that the immunization program is not intended to curb teenage pregnancies and not aiming to reduce population.
Piatos assured that the vaccines which will be coming from DOH Central Office are safe and are not contraceptives.
“This is our government’s global commitment to eliminate measles and other vaccine preventable diseases,” Montejo emphasized. (PIA-XI/Carina L. Cayon)
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