The Importance Of Vaccination Amidst The Pandemic

"Should I take my child to that required shots and risk being infected with the dreaded corona virus disease
or should I just forego the vaccination in the meantime and wait until the virus dies down or if there's already a vaccine for CoViD19?"

For parents out there whose small children are due to vaccination, must be in quandary right now.  It's really a chicken and egg question for parents, but a lot tougher though because lives are at stake. We parents are already dealing with a lot of change, stress, and isolation as a result of the pandemic, and at the same time, the immunization conundrum.

That is why the recent topic of the first ever virtual Kapihan of Samahang Plaridel with colleagues from the media and the blogging community all the way from Cebu, Davao, Bicol, Cagayan De Oro was very relevant (thanks to our lovely moderator, Ms. Joyce Panares of Manila Standard) -- it's all about the importance of immunization in time of a pandemic. Also, key medical experts for immunization have given their insights and recommendations for immunization amid the pandemic.

For those of you who are not familiar with Samahang Plaridel, it's a highly-regarded organization of publishers, editors, and journalists, also the organization behind the longest running Kapihan in the country for three decades now, The Kapihan sa Manila Hotel. And since we are in the "new normal" right now because of the CoViD19 pandemic, with several pressing issues happening at this moment, they have decided to continue the Kapihan using the digital platform, in compliance to do social distancing while staying true to the commitment to keep the public informed. 

For your information, the vaccination rate in the Philippines is now at an all-time low because of the lockdown, a Department of Health (DOH) official said. In such a manner, the World Health Organization (WHO) has released safety guidelines of immunization amid this pandemic.

UNICEF has already warned that as many as two(2) million Filipino children have already missed their vaccinations because of the pandemic. Our own Department of Health has also supported the continuation of the immunization with the safety guidelines for protection of the said virus.

The DOH National Immunization Program manager, Dr. Maria Wilda Silva, said that from January to March, vaccination coverage has dropped to 7 percent which is an all-time low. This number is way below the ideal 24 percent coverage for the country to reach the 95 percent target by end 2020.

“This is very low because of the disruption from both the supply and demand side,” Silva said in the recent online kapihan of Samahang Plaridel.

The call for immunization is strongly aligned with the statements released by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF which also highlighted the importance of continuing vaccination at this challenging time, said that the benefits of immunization clearly outweigh the risks at this time.

“Don’t be afraid because children must get immunized. They are at higher risk of getting measles, polio, pneumonia and other vaccine-preventable diseases,” according to Dr. Lulu  Bravo said, Executive Director of the Philippine Foundation for Vaccination.
“Let us all be reminded that first, if children and other vulnerable sectors are not vaccinated, they can get sick and can die from these vaccine-preventable diseases,” she adds.

Silva shared that one of the vaccine-preventable diseases, pneumonia, remains the number one killer disease among children 5 years old and below.  The tender for the child pneumococcal vaccine—between PCV 10 and PCV 13-- is currently being reviewed by the Health Technology Assessment Council (HTAC) for comparability and cost effectiveness.

Asked on the new evidence presented by the World Health Organization (WHO) saying that the two PCVs in the market are equally effective in protecting the children from pneumonia, Silva said:  “When we did the cost effectiveness analysis, they are both cost effective. The price of PCV10 and PCV13, they fall on that range na cost effective sila pareho. But, of course, there is another benefit when we chose the PCV13 because it contains te three serotypes that are not found in PCV10 before. But now with the new evidence, this was now presented to National Immunization Committee and then it was brought up to the HTAC for further review and we are waiting for the review.”

The PCV tender is massive, which is even bigger than that of the controversial Dengvaxia procurement.

“Currently, there is only one available pneumococcal conjugate vaccine available in the market (PCV 13).  It is a very expensive vaccine and its eating up more than 60% of the budget of the national immunization program. Mahal talaga pag isang produkto lang ang nasa merkado, ” Silva said.

The HTAC Review of the PCV vaccines is expected to be completed this June.
For her part, Dr. Mary Ann Bunyi, president of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society of the Philippines (PIDSP), said that like COVID-19, “each opponent virus has its own effective weapon of infecting vulnerable individuals, especially children which is why, vaccination is critical even during a pandemic.

“Sa ngayon, meron na tayong mabisang bala para sa tigdas, polio, tusperina, flu, pulmonya, pagtatae at iba pang mga sakit. So, labanan natin at sugpuin natin ito upang mapanatili nating malusog ang ating mga bata. Sama-sama, tulong-tulong tayong ihayag sa mga magulang kung gaano kahalaga ang magpabakuna.” 
(For now, we already have an effective defense weapon against measles, polio, pertussis, flu, pneumonia, diarrhea, and many other illnesses. We need to fight and beat these to ensure the health of our kids. We should all together make parents aware how important it is to get vaccinated.)

Overall, immunization is really an essential healthcare service. Despite the pandemic, it should not be stopped. Delivery of immunization services must be continued because vaccine preventable diseases will happen if we stop immunization and it will further overwhelm the already overwhelmed healthcare system because of the current situation.