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March 13, 2002

“Philippines Falters in Battle Against Child Diseases:  State Poll” Agence France Presse (www.afp.com/english/home) (03/12/02)

A recent government survey performed in conjunction with the U.S. Agency for International Development shows that over 25 million Filipino children remain at high risk from vaccine-preventable diseases like polio and tuberculosis after a state-wide immunization program fell apart last year.  Overall, full vaccination compliance among infants aged 12 months to 23 months of age fell to 61.3 percent  last year from 65.2 percent in the previous year; coverage in rural regions dropped 6 percent to 56.5 percent; and urban areas dropped to 68 percent compliance, a decline of 1.1 percent from 2000.  Experts from the World Health Organization noted that the government’s immunization program was losing coverage in the sprawling urban slum regions and labored under a shortage of vaccines.  Last year, only one out of every five children was completely immunized in the impoverished Autonomous Region in Mindanao.

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