By: Venus May H. Sarmiento
PIA Dagupan Infocenter

URDANETA CITY – The Department of Health led by Secretary Francisco Duque III strongly urged all local government units and health care workers to find ways to eliminate childhood diseases that are vaccine preventable.

Duque made the call to action during the launching of the Garantisadong Pambata (GP) program in Pangasinan attended by representatives of the World Health Organization, UNICEF, DOH- Center for Health Development and health workers.

Graantisadong Pambata is a package of services for children 0-11 months old consisting of the ‘FOURmula for Health’ – Vitamin A supplementation, immunization, breastfeeding and deworming. These are cost-effective interventions to ensure child survival and reduce infant mortality.

The health secretary noted that there are 71,795 un-immunized children in the region last year. Of the number, 49,895 or 60% are in Pangasinan ranking the province sixth largest in number of unimmunized children in the country.

Duque explained that a fully-immunized child is one who has received one dose of BCG for childhood tuberculosis, three doses of oral polio vaccine, three doses of DPT (for diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus), one dose of measles and three doses of hepatitis B before reaching one year old.

“Don’t just support Garantisadong Pambata. Adopt GP and implement it for the welfare of our children,” Duque stressed