As countries concentrate their efforts toward battling the COVID-19 pandemic, health authorities are also emphasizing the need to continue immunization programs despite these circumstances.
Experts assert maintaining high immunization rates across all age groups is essential to protect the population, owing to vaccines’ capability to prevent and control the emergence or re-emergence of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, polio, and pneumonia, among others.
Without immunization services, susceptible age groups specifically children and the elderly will be most at risk of exposure to a number of other deadly diseases apart from COVID-19.
Senior citizens, 60 years old and above, in particular, are highly vulnerable due to their weakened immune systems and pre-existing health conditions. They have a greater likelihood of acquiring illnesses including pneumonia and influenza.
Pneumonia infects the lungs and is most commonly caused by bacteria called Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcal pneumonia). Pneumonia inflames the air sacs of the lungs, filling them with fluid or pus, and thus causing fever, chills, cough with phlegm, and difficulty in breathing.
One of the ways to protect the elderly from pneumonia is through vaccination.
Vaccination or immunization is among the greatest triumphs in medical history, proven to save 2 to 3 million lives a year or five lives a day. Vaccination prevents and controls infectious diseases and, in some cases, may even eliminate diseases altogether (such is the case of smallpox).
According to experts, when at least 95 percent of a community is vaccinated, complete elimination of diseases is possible. In fact, through vaccination, the Philippines has managed to eliminate polio in the year 2000, and neonatal tetanus in 2017.
However, in recent years, the Philippines has experienced a sharp decline in vaccination rate from 87 percent in 2016 to 68 percent in 2019, which then resulted in the re-emergence of measles and polio cases.
In light of the COVID-19 situation, the World Health Organization has provided guidelines for national immunization programs, which are considered by the Department of Health in its recent interim guidelines for immunization services amid COVID-19.
These guidelines emphasize that immunization is a core service which must not be compromised while battling COVID-19. According to the DOH guidelines, immunization services should be continued as long as COVID-19 response measures allow, and if areas are at low risk.
Proper hand washing and disinfection must be practiced after every patient. Social distancing must be observed among patients and health care workers. Vaccination services must also be administered in disinfected and well-ventilated areas.
In the event that immunization services are not feasible and must be delayed, healthcare workers must have a list of patients who missed their vaccination. Catch-up vaccination activities will be put in place when the situation allows.
Maintaining or delaying immunization services will also depend on the situation in each community, the risk of outbreaks, and the burden of vaccine-preventable diseases in these areas.
With the interim guidelines in place, regions in the country have already made strategic plans and implementation of the government’s free immunization services in communities for easier access, convenience, and safety.
DOH Centers for Health Development in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, together with their partners in the government, have already started adapting strategies such as house-to-house visits for the vaccination of children, pregnant women, and the elderly while strictly observing community quarantine guidelines.
Vaccination services are also being continued in some local healthcare facilities or in identified fixed immunization sites while practicing social distancing, proper hygiene and disinfection, and overall safety.