Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, September 20) – The Department of Health (DOH) is monitoring another case of polio in the Philippines, an official confirmed on Friday.
“It is possible that we have more than one case,” Health Undersecretary Rolando Domingo said in an interview with CNN Philippines’ New Day.
Domingo added that before the first confirmed Type 2 polio case involving an unidentified three-year-old girl from Lanao del Sur a month ago, the Health agency has detected the polio virus in the water samples from the sewerage systems of Manila and Davao.
The DOH and World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday announced that there is a polio epidemic in the Philippines after the vaccine-preventable disease has re-emerged in the country after almost two decades of having polio-free status.
A single confirmed case in a polio-free nation automatically calls for a declaration of an outbreak, the Health Secretary Francisco Duque 3rd explained.
READ: Polio outbreak declared in PH
The Health Department confirms polio has reemerged in the Philippines, 19 years after the World Health Organization declared the country free of the disease.
Domingo said that a polio epidemic has been declared in the country because of a number of factors namely poor vaccination coverage in the last five years and environmental sanitation issues.
Domingo said that the immunization rates have ranging between 60 to 70 percent and this means that every year, around 30 percent of Filipino children five years old and below are more vulnerable to vaccine-preventable illnesses because of their weak immune system.
He said, “Once you have fecal matter possibly contaminating your water source, and it getting back into circulation, there is a possibility of it infecting people.”
Polio’s clinical manifestations include flu-like symptoms, the Health department said.
Domingo said that children at risk to the contagious illnesses would receive polio vaccine next month.
