PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP. The Department of Health in the Cordillera hopes to address the gap in the number of immunized children through a partnership with the Philippine Pediatric Society. Dr. Janice Bugtong (left), assistant regional director of the DOH-CAR, during the Bagong Pilipinas (New Philippines) press briefing in Baguio City on Tuesday (July 2, 2024), said the tie-up will allow health authorities to get data from private medical practitioners to determine the gap on immunization rate among children aged zero to five years. (PNA photo by Liza T. Agoot)
BAGUIO CITY – The Department of Health in the Cordillera Administrative Region (DOH-CAR) said it continues to exert effort to increase the immunization rate among children aged zero to five years.
In a Bagong Pilipinas (New Philippines) briefing at the DOH-CAR regional training center here, Dr. Aliza Castro, medical officer III and the National Immunization Program coordinator, said the region achieved a 65.03 percent immunization rate in 2023, lower than the 95 percent national goal.
Data shows about 163,000 children are being targeted for the different basic immunizations.
“Our health workers in the DOH and the local government units have been doing household visits to find children who have not been immunized but are nowhere to be found,” Castro said.
She said they are also exerting efforts to have accurate data to help on their decision-making and reach more children.
“We are finalizing the memorandum of agreement with the Philippine Pediatrics Society in the Cordillera. This will allow us to have guidelines and address the fears of the private practicing pediatrician on data privacy,” she said.
Under Project SHIELD, which stands for Strategic Health Integration for Enhanced Child Immunization or Shield Initiative and which was started earlier this year, DOH strengthens partnership with private health practitioners to promote inclusive collaboration and enhance immunization data integration to arrive at a more accurate or actual immunization coverage among the children in the region.
Dr. Janice Bugtong, DOH-CAR assistant regional director, said the agreement for the SHIELD Initiative is scheduled to be signed this month for implementation in August.
“The SHIELD hopes to address the gap and find out if the unimmunized children in the region are really unreached by the health services or they have already been immunized by private doctors,” she said.
Immunization is among the eight priority health programs of the DOH-CAR in its goal to achieve healthy people in the community. (PNA)
