24 Sep UNICEF Urges LGUs To Help Promote Polio Immunization: 2 Cases Now Confirmed In PH
Images by (left) World Health Organization and (right) NewsOn247.
Mga higala! The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is now urging Local Government Units (LGUs) to help in promoting the immunization against POLIO, in order to prevent it from spreading in the Philippines!
ICYDK, a second case of the disease has been recently confirmed in a 5-year-old boy from Laguna.
(The first one was detected in a 3-year-old girl from Lanao del Sur.)
According to a report from The Philippine Star, UNICEF Rep. Oyun Dendevnorov said that LGUs must advise parents to have their children immunized and that leaders and other public figures must mobilize their communities to participate in immunization activities.
He also added that poorly conducted immunizations can leave children vulnerable to either vaccine-derived or wild polio viruses. Proper and full immunizations are needed so that children can be protected from all forms of the virus.
What is polio?
Do you know what polio is? Read a part of an article from www.esquiremag.ph below:
Decades ago, polio was one of the most feared diseases in the world. Aside from being a highly contagious viral disease, it also has a frightening portfolio of symptoms: paralysis, lung failure, fever, fatigue, headache, vomiting, pain in the limbs, and stiffness in the neck. Completing its profile of deadliness, the disease mostly affects children under five years of age, who are highly susceptible to the disease.
One in every 200 infections leads to permanent paralysis. Around 10 percent of paralyzed victims die when their breathing muscles fail. Apolinario Mabini contracted polio when he was in his 30s, eventually paralyzing him from the waist down.
Cause of Polio:
Poliovirus can be transmitted through direct contact with someone infected with the virus or, less commonly, through contaminated food and water. People carrying the poliovirus can spread the virus for weeks in their feces. People who have the virus but don’t have symptoms can pass the virus to others.
Effects:
Paralytic polio can lead to temporary or permanent muscle paralysis, disability, bone deformities, and death.
What can we do to help prevent polio?
Higala! The most effective way to stop polio is through vaccination.
Aside from that, we can also help in promoting immunization against this horrible disease in our own communities, and help in correcting fake news or beliefs against vaccines.
For more details:
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2019/09/23/1954153/lgus-urged-help-promote-polio-immunization
https://www.esquiremag.ph/politics/news/polio-philippines-a00293-20190920
https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/immunization/infographic/world-polio-day-2014.htm
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