BARMM anti-measles vaccination campaign in full swing

April 5, 2024 | 6:57pm

COTABATO CITY— Local executives in the Bangsamoro region on Friday took turns urging constituents to set aside their superstitious beliefs against disease control via vaccination and bring their children to health centers for free anti-measles shots.

The Ministry of Health-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao launched a ten-day anti-measles vaccination rollout in all of BARMM’s six provinces and three cities last Tuesday after more than 500 children in the local communities got sick of it from January to March 2024.

Three children in BARMM, covering Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi and the cities of Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato, died of measles during the period.

Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. on Friday called on the esidents of the 39 towns in their province and in all barangays in Marawi City to do away with fallacies that vaccination, as protection from bacterial and viral diseases, is either not permitted in Islam, or can do more harm than good.

“Our religious leaders, many of them graduates of well-known Islamic religious schools abroad, have spoken that health care is paramount in Islam and that having children vaccinated against diseases is not a religious taboo,” Adiong said.

Senior officials of the MoH-BARMM here told reporters on Friday morning that Adiong and his constituent-mayors are helping them push the ministry’s anti-measles vaccination campaign in Lanao del Sur forward.

The local government unit of Lamitan City and the office of Basilan Gov. Hadjiman Salliman have also been endorsing over radio stations periodically since Tuesday the 10-day anti-measles vaccination campaign of the MoH-BARMM.

Physicians and Islamic theologians in Lamitan City in the island province of Basilan are using their local government unit’s newly-established radio station to drumbeat the importance of having children vaccinated against measles. 

“We are even contemplating on giving out some sort of incentives to barangay governments that shall have highest counts of children vaccinated during this ten-day vaccination campaign of the Bangsamoro health ministry,” Lamitan City Mayor Roderick Furigay told reporters via Viber message on Friday.

Furigay said that he is thankful to Lamitan City Schools Superintendent Myra Borja Mangkabung for supporting extensively the vaccination campaign in all of the 45 barangays covered by their LGU.