46 Normin samples test negative for polio

By URIEL C. QUILINGUING, Contributing Editor

THE Department of Health on Tuesday said the 46 acute flaccid paralysis specimens from Northern Mindanao that were sent to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine last week all tested negative for poliovirus.

This was indicated in a DOH-10 briefer, even as the synchronized 12-day polio outbreak response immunization, which took off Nov. 25 this year, has reached a little over 89 percent of the 584,078 targeted total number of eligible children in the region.

The 46 acute flaccid paralysis cases, from whom stool samples were taken for laboratory examinations, came from the disease reporting units of Bukidnon (13), Lanao del Norte (13), Misamis Oriental (11), Misamis Occidental (7), and Camiguin (2), according to Dr. Elma Oclarit, head of DOH 10 family health cluster.

Acute flaccid paralysis is a sudden onset of paralysis or weakness in any part of the body of a child less than 15 years of age and a common sign of acute polio and used for surveillance during polio outbreaks.

“Laboratory results showed the AFP cases were not due to poliovirus since these symptoms could be due to other diseases,” Oclarit said, unlike the six confirmed polio cases—five from the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and a single cases in Laguna.

In the meantime, rapid coverage assistance (RCA) teams, composed of a vaccinator, recorder, and guide, have been deployed to reach out to more than 62,000 eligible children—59 months and below—who have not been immunized with the oral polio vaccine.

The same briefer shows only Lanao del Norte province posted a 90.15-percent immunization performance while the rest lagged behind: Camiguin (80.39 percent), Bukidnon (85.08 percent), Misamis Oriental (86.80 percent), and Misamis Occidental (87.04 percent).

Among cities, the best performer in polio immunization, so far, is Gingoog City (97.71 percent) followed by Valencia (94.84 percent), Ozamiz (94.82 percent), Cagayan de Oro (93.83 percent), Iligan (93.71 percent), and Malaybalay (90.60 percent) while El Salvador and Oroquieta are way below at 86.93 percent and 80.03 percent, respectively.

“We’re optimistic the 95-percent target can be achieved,” said the DOH-10 polio immunization focal person, admitting there are “high-risk areas” for the RCA teams which include urban slums, vaccine-hesitant communities, and misinformed population. She said there are also people who have religious beliefs that diseases can be prevented and even cured by sheer faith in God.

“We’re so thankful that Archbishop (Antonio) Ledesma issued a pastoral letter urging all churchgoers to avail of the free polio immunization for children below five years old,” Oclarit said in a media briefing.

Polio or poliomyelitis is a crippling and potentially deadly infectious disease caused by the poliovirus. The virus can spread from person to person and can invade an infected person’s brain and spinal cord, causing paralysis.