The Measles, Rubella, Oral Polio Vaccine Supplemental Immunization Activity (MR OPV SIA) dubbed “Chikiting Ligtas” will be implemented the entire month of February in Antique province.

At the stakeholders meeting and press conference at the IPHO Building here on Wednesday, Integrated Provincial Health Office (IPHO) chief, Dr. Ric Noel Naciongayo, said they are appealing to parents for their children to avail themselves of the month-long mass immunization.

MR OPV SIA targets 123,657 children from 59 months old and below.

“Please help protect your children from measles, rubella, and polio,” he said.

Parents and other stakeholders knew how these diseases could affect the lives of children that they should be protected by letting them undergo the vaccination, Naciongayo added.

Carlyn Faco, National Immunization Program point person, said that in 2018, Antique has 20 confirmed measles cases and 33 in 2019.

She said that this January, Antique has already two reported measles cases.

Meantime, IPHO information officer Irene Dulduco said there was no reported case of polio in the province from 2018 up to now.

The vaccination will employ different strategies amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

There will be fixed sites or health facilities that will be opened for the entire month, modified fixed sites with barangay halls and daycare centers as venues, and house-to-house or door-to-door, where public health nurses of the rural health units (RHUs) will be deployed in areas that have no Covid-19 cases.

Dulduco said measles is a childhood infection with signs and symptoms such as fever, dry cough, runny nose, and Koplik spots (a feature of measles) while polio is a life-threatening disease caused by the poliovirus. (PNA)