‘Immunize kids before age 2’

Gov. Juan N. Babauta has proclaimed this week as National Infant Immunization Awareness Week, in an effort to increase awareness for the need to immunize infants before their second birthday as a means to ensure the foundation for lifelong health.

Babauta signed the proclamation yesterday morning in the presence of ranking Department of Public Health officials led by Health Secretary James Hofschneider.

Ironically, this comes even as the Department of Public Health is experiencing dwindling supplies in certain vaccines, such as DPT, or diptheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccines.

In a prior interview, Hofschneider said the lack of supply of the vaccine at the national level has resulted in a local shortage, affecting the immunization rate for kids three years old and below.

According to him, the immunization rate for this age range has dropped from over 90-percent to a record-low of 57 percent.

Before the shortage, Public Health Medical Director Dr. Richard Brostrom said there was an average of up to 1,500 new children immunized each year.

Despite this, the Governor said the CNMI government is committed to policies that strengthen immunization services, particularly for children under the age of two.

“It [government] is also committed to providing support to the [Department] of Public Health in developing and maintaining communities that are free of deadly, infectious diseases,” Babauta said, reading from a portion of the proclamation.

The National Infant Immunization Awareness Week runs from April 14 to 20.

The Governor said this proclamation intends to raise awareness about immunization issues and encourage members of the community to protect the CNMI’s children from deadly diseases by immunizing them on time.

Among the major points that this awareness campaign wants to stress, Babauta said, is that majority of vaccines need to be administered before a child reaches two years old. In the Commonwealth, all school-aged children are required to provide a blue health certificate or proof of compliance with immunization requirements before enrolling in school.

“About 90 percent of children entering school for the first time are up to date. However, waiting until school age to immunize places children and the community at great risk,” the Governor stressed.

The DPH offers vaccination service to children for free.