Health budget English news | Health budget, Latest News & Live Updates in English | English News (Latest English News) at Lokmattimes.com

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) hailed the Philippines on Friday for ending the polio outbreak almost two years after the highly infectious disease re-emerged in the Southeast Asian country.In a joint statement, the UN agencies said the Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) officially stopped the polio outbreak response on June 3 this year. "The decision came as the virus has not been detected in a child or the environment in the past 16 months," the statement read.The agencies said comprehensive outbreak response actions, including intensified immunization and surveillance activities in affected areas of the Southeast Asian country, curbed the spread of the poliovirus.The DOH announced a polio outbreak in the Philippines on Sept. 19, 2019, after 19 years of a polio-free status.Since then, the Philippine government and the WHO, the UNICEF, and other partners mounted nationwide polio campaigns to stop the spread of the virus.Despite the tremendous challenges to immunization presented by the simultaneous impact of COVID-19, the DOH had continued robust polio immunization campaigns.In particular, the UNICEF and the WHO lauded the DOH for enhancing training and mobilizing health workers in infection prevention and control, and supplying them with personal protective equipment to enable vaccinating children in their homes and designated health centers -- "a global first in a country experiencing community transmission of COVID-19."The WHO supported the country's polio outbreak response by providing technical and operations support on intensifying polio surveillance, planning, preparing for and monitoring immunization campaigns, infection prevention and control measures, and risk communication. It also deployed international and national polio experts who provided on-the-ground technical support to the affected regions and local implementers."This is a major win for public health and is an excellent example of what collective efforts can attain, even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic," Rabindra Abeyasinghe, WHO representative to the Philippines, said.The UNICEF supported the DOH through vaccine procurement and delivery, development of immunization guidelines, social mobilization, engaging community members and influencers, and building the capacity of DOH and local government units nationwide to plan and ensure that all children are inoculated."The success of the polio immunization in the Philippines is proof that when we come together for children, great things happen," UNICEF Representative to the Philippines Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov said.Polio is a highly infectious, crippling, and sometimes fatal disease that can be avoided with a vaccine. Children under the age of five are particularly vulnerable.The WHO said the disease remains endemic now in the only two countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and polio will be the second disease ever to be completely eradicated when eradicated there. (ANI/Xinhua)( With inputs from ANI )Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor

Health BudgetFOLLOW

Health budget, Latest News

In a move that has thickened the plot surrounding the lab leak theory on COVID-19 origins, Dr Peter Daszak, the British member of the World Health Organization (WHO) mission in China's Wuhan, has been recused from the UN-backed Commission work on the ...

Current COVID-19 vaccines are less effective against the Delta coronavirus variant, which was first detected in India, but they still prevent severe disease and death, Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's technical lead for COVID-19, s ...

The Embassy of the Republic of Korea in India on Thursday confirmed that under the new policy of the South Korean government, quarantine exemption for travellers from India and other countries will be applied for those vaccinated with World Health Or ...

While countries like Japan deciding to issue "vaccine passports" as proof of immunisation for its citizens travelling abroad, India on Thursday said that it will favour discussion with a greater focus on vaccine equity, since many developing nations ...

Geneva, June 17 Caesarean sections are on the rise globally and will account for 29 per cent of ... ...

The World Health Organization (WHO) urged countries on Monday to close a funding gap of 16 billion US dollars for the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator project, which aims to accelerate the development, production, and equitable access to CO ...

Geneva, June 14 Leaders of G7 countries have agreed in an agreement at their summit to share at ... ...

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) hailed the Philippines on Friday for ending the polio outbreak almost two years after the highly infectious disease re-emerged in the Southeast Asian country. ...