The Department of Health Western Visayas Center for Health Development (DOH WV CHD) encouraged parents and caregivers to support the 2025 school-based immunization (SBI) targeting 185,657 selected public school learners in the region.

DOH WV CHD regional immunization program medical coordinator Dr. Jose Martin Atienza said they aimed to protect Grades 1 and 7 learners who will be administered with measles-rubella (MR) and tetanus-diphtheria (Td) vaccines, and Grade 4 female learners for human papillomavirus vaccines (HPV) as they resumed with the Bakuna Eskwela program this August until September.

In a press conference on Thursday, Atienza said they target to cover all of the 62,843 Grade 1 and 84,142 Grade 7 learners for the measles-rubella and tetanus-diphtheria vaccines, and 38,612 learners for human papillomavirus vaccines.

“The vaccines that we provide under the Department of Health are the safest and are of the highest quality. They are actually approved by the World Health Organization and have passed the DOH and the Food and Drug Administration standards, which is why we continue to encourage our parents and caregivers to please subject your child for vaccination and see to it that they receive the proper protection that they deserve,” he said.

He also encouraged parents and caregivers to approach public school teachers and principals to ask about the immunization.

Private schools interested in participating in the campaign are advised to send a letter to the city or provincial health office for possible arrangements.

“We have sufficient or more than enough vaccines allocated for our city and provincial health offices,” Atienza said.

He said the vaccination can help prevent absenteeism among school children and relieve the cost of the burden when hospitalized.

Last year, the SBI posted a 90.54 percent accomplishment for the 65,308 Grade 1 target, 70.06 percent of the 89,686 Grade 7, and 65. 19 percent of the 42,041 Grade 4 female learners.

The DOH WV CHD and the Iloilo City government officially launched the Regional Bakuna Eskwela program at Hibao-an Integrated School in the Mandurriao district on Wednesday.

“We hope that our parents, health workers, and the education sector work in collaboration with each other. We have the same targets; we have the same stakeholders, which are the children. We want them to be safe, we want to give them the best and highest quality of life they deserve,” Atienza said. (PNA)