MANILA, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine government said on Monday that another child in the southern Philippines tested positive for the poliovirus, bringing the total number of polio cases this year to eight.
The Department of Health (DOH) said the latest confirmed polio case is a nine-year-old girl from Basilan, an impoverished island province off Mindanao Island, who had not received any vaccines for polio.
The DOH said it is currently coordinating with the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao's Ministry of Health to maximize immunization coverage and intensify polio vaccination efforts in Basilan province
The Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque said he is confident that there are enough stocks of oral polio vaccine (OPV).
The government started on Monday another round of door-to-door, two-week vaccination activities in Metro Manila and the entire Mindanao in the southern Philippines.
The DOH said this will be expanded to the rest of the country next year.
Duque stressed anew the need to have children, aged 0 to 59 months, immunized with the polio vaccine.
Polio is best prevented through vaccination. Proper hygiene like hand washing will also help in the prevention, he added.
On September 19 this year, the Philippines declared a polio outbreak after the infectious disease reappeared 19 years after the country was declared polio-free by the World Health Organization in 2000.
Eight polio cases have been reported since the outbreak. Of the eight cases, seven are from the southern Philippines. One case was reported in Laguna province in the northern Philippines.
Polio is an infectious disease which spreads rapidly. It can cause paralysis and, on rare occasions, can be fatal. There is no cure for polio. However, it can only be prevented with multiple doses of polio vaccines that have long been proven safe and effective.
Polio is spread when the stool of an infected person is introduced into the mouth of another person through contaminated water or food.
