500K pentavalent jabs arrive, 750K more doses expected

HALF a million doses of pentavalent vaccine recently arrived in the country, with another 750,000 doses expected to arrive next week, the Department of Health said yesterday.

The vaccines are set to be used in the routine vaccination program for infants and children in to prevent a repeat of the pertussis outbreak earlier his year, said Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa.

“Vaccination continues to ensure that a spike of pertussis will not happen again,” he said.

The pentavalent vaccines protect against five potential killers – diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B, and Hib.

The DOH said 500,000 doses of DPT-Hep B-HiB are in cold storage.

Herbosa said the DOH will ensure that all the doses will get to government health centers “at the soonest,” adding paperwork for distribution to government health centers nationwide is being finalized.

Earlier this year, the country saw a spike in pertussis cases, which numbered to around 300 cases per week.

Over the last two months, the DOH said about 50 pertussis cases are being registered per week.

A total of 3,827 pertussis cases have been recorded from January 1 to August 17, said the DOH. The figure is way higher than the 291 pertussis cases reported during the same period last year.