By Eloisa P. Galang – PIO
The whole world feared the threat posed by the AH1N1 virus last year, including the most powerful country in the world, the United States.
Even after the threat has diminished, we cannot afford to relax as it could strike again or that even a new and more virulent strain of the virus could emerge, this according to the Department of Health (DOH).
This is the view taken by the national leadership and by the World Health Organization (WHO) which donated the first batch of vaccine against the dreaded disease during the first quarter of this year and which covers 10% of the country’s total population.
It was learned from Emerita S. Sicat, Nurse III of the Pampanga Provincial Health Office (PHO), that the vaccination started in April this year after the first batch of vaccines was received from the DOH.
“We started by administering the vaccine to health workers – those in the district hospitals, the Municipal Health Offices, the barangay health workers, and the barangay emergency response teams.”
According to Sicat, these are the people who are in constant and close contact with people in the communities who could be afflicted with the disease. “They need to have stronger immunity against the disease due to their potential exposure to it.”
These health workers were also responsible in determining who the qualified recipients of the vaccines would be since they are the ones immersed in the communities, Sicat added.
Already vaccinated as well are 40 percent of the province’s pregnant women in their second or third trimester, and children aged six months to below five years because these are the groups who have “particularly low resistance against diseases”.
The PHO staff administering it cautioned that the following should not receive the vaccine to avoid any possible contra-indications: people with a history of anaphylaxis or those who have hypersensitive reactions or other life-threatening reactions to any of the constituents or trace residues of the vaccine; people with a history of a severe reaction to previous influenza vaccinations; people who developed Guilliard-Barre Syndrome (GSB) within six weeks of getting an influenza vaccine; children less than six months of age because inactivated influenza vaccine is not approved for this age group; and people who have a moderate to severe illness with a fever (they should wait until they recover to get vaccinated).
With the next batch of vaccines that is coming, the health personnel administering the vaccine will have to undergo another orientation because “it will be in the form for dilution”, as compared to the first batch which was delivered already in its diluted form
The vaccine, according to Sicat, provides a one-year immunity against the disease, and is deemed good to administer now that the rainy season has started and there is a high probability of people getting sick.
