The Municipal Health Office of Santo Tomas headed by Dr. June P. Lim launches the Department of Health (DOH) Bakuna Eskwela 2024 at the Municipal Covered Court in Santo Tomas on October 7, 2024. Photo by the Santo Tomas Information Office.
The Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Health (DOH) on Monday relaunched the school-based immunization program to protect millions of public school students from vaccine-preventable diseases.
The program, dubbed as “Bakuna Eskwela,” aims to immunize students against measles, rubella, tetanus, diphtheria and human papillomavirus (HPV). It will be rolled out in selected public schools across various provinces from October to November.
The government has allocated a total budget of P853 million for the program, which aims to immunize at least 3.8 million public school students enrolled in Grades 1 and 7 with MR-TD (measles, rubella, tetanus, diphtheria) vaccines and another 973,930 female Grade 4 students in selected public schools for the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine.
Education Secretary Sonny Angara and Health Secretary Ted Herbosa led the kickoff event at Dr. A Albert Elementary School in Manila.
“Sa bakuna [with the vaccine], we can ensure our learners stay in school and don’t miss valuable learning opportunities,” Angara added.
Herbosa said the goal is to create a safe environment for every Filipino child.
The school-based immunization program, which began in 2015, had been successful in reducing outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases among schoolchildren. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced a temporary suspension and led to a worrying decline in vaccination rates
