Rotavirus disease is everywhere. It is
a democratic disease affecting everyone no matter where you reside. Even
if you belong to rural or progressive/developed area, rotavirus still occurs.
Proper sanitation and clean water
supplies still, don’t give the people 100% assurance of safety against from
this disease. As this virus is spread everywhere even inside our home.
What is Rotavirus Vaccination and
how important it is?
This was the whole event promoted
about. Rotavirus Vaccine is the most
effective way to prevent diarrhea related childhood deaths under 5 years of
age. It is given orally to kids which is easy to give to them compare to other
types of vaccines (injectable ones).
**Rotavirus Vaccination has been implemented in developed countries
such as Australia, USA, Spain and UK.
List of the countries where **RV now part of EPI/UMV: USA, Australia,
Austria, Brazil, Belgium, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, Germany, Mexico, Peru,
South Africa, and GAVI eligible countries- Bolivia, Honduras. And in Asia, Philippines
is the first country to promote rotavirus vaccine in *EPI.
It has been announced as well in
media that this particular vaccination is now part of the *Expanded Program for Immunization (EPI) in 2012. It is free for those people who can’t afford to pay for
private doctor/pedia, those who can’t even afford to eat three times a day due
to financial problems they encounter everyday- or commonly known as “poorest of the poor”.
There are 2 million newborn
babies annually, yet out of it; only 700,000 (member of poorest of the poor) newborns are reserved to avail this
vaccine for free through health centers.
The current status of Rotavirus
Vaccination in Philippines:
- 1/10 is given a RV vaccine in
private doctors (pediatrician)
- 3/10 are given RV vaccine for
FREE (poorest of the poor)
- 6/10 remaining children are not
given RV vaccines due to financial problems (yet
not categorized as poorest of the poor), which are high risk for RV
infection.
With that, our government is
pleasing those who can afford to pay in private to give way in line to those
poorest the poor in free RV vaccine in health centers.
Hopefully, by 2015 (WHO’s goal),
Philippines could achieve 2/3 reduction in child’s mortality among 5 years old
below.
Why should a child be given a RV Vaccine?
Rotavirus Diarrhea is a serious
disease. If a child gets this, low chances s/he is capable to survive. That’s
why, children especially those infants should be given RV vaccine as early as 6 weeks
in order to low his or her risk or prevent him or her to get the Rotavirus
Disease in the future.
As a parent, why should I include
this vaccine to his or her EPI?
There you have it. If you don’t
want to lose your child, then give him RV vaccine. If you don’t want to face
financial problems in the future, give him RV vaccine. If you don’t want to add
problems in your stressful work, then give him RV vaccine.
Hospitalization due to acute gastroenteritis/diarrhea bears a very
serious impact on the patient and parents’ quality of life as well as on their
livelihood. Working caregivers had an average of PhP1,000 income loss per day.
Amongst working caregivers, almost all missed 1-3 days of work or more. More
than half of the caregivers had spent more than PhP5,000 (an average of
Php7,870.00) for all the medical expenses..
How much does RV Vaccine cost in
private doctors/pedia?
That varies. But as per
estimation, (vaccine costs alone) it
ranges from PhP2500-3500 excluding PF of your pediatrician.
And as per Dr. Juliet Aguilar, in her part she gives RV vaccine as early as 6
weeks of a child’s life. But in health centers, this is usually given to a
child when s/he reaches 8 months of his life.
Why risk, if we can all prevent
this deadly disease through giving our child RV vaccine before it’s too late.
Again, I would like to thank Mr. Tan and Mr. Coby (and the rest of the
staff) for being so accommodating and of course, Dr. Aguilar and the other
Doctor for taking time to be with us and discussed what RV is all about.