By Karen Lema
MANILA, Sept 25 (Reuters) - The Philippines risks having
more cases of polio unless it sharply steps up its vaccinations
of children under 5 years of age, the World Health Organization
said on Wednesday.
The Southeast Asian country is dealing with an outbreak of
the infectious disease. A wider outbreak of polio could set back
global efforts to eradicate the crippling disease, which remains
endemic in only three countries - Afghanistan, Nigeria and
Pakistan.
The confirmed cases in the Philippines were caused by
"vaccine-derived" polio rather than the wild type of the virus,
which had been eradicated in the country nearly two decades ago.
"The WHO is gravely concerned about the situation in the
Philippines," Rabindra Abeyasinghe, WHO Philippines
representative, told reporters.
Immunisation coverage in the Philippines for oral polio
vaccines is 66%, but needs to be at 95%, Abeyasinghe said. Just
40% of children under 5 have received a polio vaccine by
injection.
"If we do the vaccination the way we normally did, and that
30% are not vaccinated, you are seeing another outbreak in
another couple of years", he said.
The Philippines will roll out next month an immunisation
programme that will initially target the children in two areas
of the southern region of Mindanao, where the first case of
polio was confirmed last week and where the virus has been
detected in sewage systems.
A second case was also recorded last week in Laguna, south
of the capital Manila, more than 1,000 km away from Mindanao.
Eroding trust in vaccines and poor access to healthcare
facilities are among the reasons why Filipino children are not
getting vaccinated, compounding the problems of health
authorities already battling measles and dengue outbreaks.
The WHO has given the Philippines access to an oral polio
vaccine (OPV) against type 2 of the disease, which the country
does not have.
OPVs produced from 2016 no longer target the type 2 strain
because the wild polio virus type 2 has already been eradicated
worldwide since 2015, but the WHO still keeps a stockpile.
The vaccine-derived type 2 polio virus was the strain
detected in the two reported cases, Abeyasinghe said, adding
that the WHO and the United Nations agency for children, UNICEF,
would work with the Philippines to vaccinate more children.
Vaccine-derived cases tend to occur in places with low
vaccine coverage and poor sanitation as people who have been
vaccinated excrete the virus, putting those who have not been
vaccinated at risk of catching it.
Polio is a virus that attacks the nervous system and can
cause irreversible paralysis within hours of infection. Children
under five are the most vulnerable, but polio can be prevented
with vaccination.
The last known case of wild polio virus in the Philippines
was in 1993, the WHO said.
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Philippines to vaccinate millions as polio virus resurfaces in 2
children https://reut.rs/2n41Uop
Polio prevalence https://tmsnrt.rs/31FJLN6
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(Editing by Jacqueline Wong)