Health Ministry: Vaccinate your child to prevent communicable disease
PUCHONG: Health Ministry today advised all parents to ensure that their children aged below five years old to get vaccinated.
In a Facebook post today, the ministry said the action is needed to help protect children from being infected by infectious diseases.
“Children under the age of five years old can easily be infected by communicable diseases because they are still building their immune system.
“By vaccinating children, it will help protect them. Follow the schedule set under the National Immunisation Schedule,” it said.
The ministry said vaccination was important to create herd immunity against diseases.
“On Sept 19, there was an outbreak of polio in the Philippines where early cases of infection were detected among children aged between three and five years old.
“According to World Health Organization (WHO), this happened because herd immunity towards polio in the Phillippines is low, where OPV vaccine protection is just 66% and IPV vaccine (41%),” it said.
The ministry added that 72 people died in the Samoa Islands two months ago due to the measles outbreak.
“Most of the victim were children under the age of five, who did not get vaccinated. When the outbreak occurred, the herd immunity level was only at 31%.
“Now all Samoa Island people are required to be vaccinated against measles,” it said.
By Irman Hashim
