Press Release
November 12, 2009

LOREN URGES MORE GOV'T SUPPORT FOR VACCINATION

Sen. Loren Legarda today (Nov. 12) called on the national government to provide more support for the national immunization program and partner with the private sector in order to ensure a healthy citizenry.

Addressing the National Immunization Conference at the Hyatt Hotel, Manila, Loren stressed that preventive measures are more effective and less expensive in ensuring health than curative measures.

"When it comes to vaccination and immunization, it cannot be reiterated enough that vaccines are the very foundation of public health providing inexpensive, safe, and life-long protection," said Loren, who is the chair of the Senate Committee on Health and Demography.

However, Loren deplored, because of an inadequate budget the government had never had enough resources for the vaccination of the entire citizenry. For the year 2010, the proposed P33.7 billion budget for the Department of Health is a mere 2.2 percent of the total national budget, she said.

"That is just a drop in the bucket for the health needs of our people," she stressed.

Loren noted that many kinds of diseases and strains of viruses have sprouted lately, like the A-H1N1. "Experts say it has the potential of replicating the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 which killed somewhere between 20 and 40 million people and which has been cited as the most devastating epidemic in recorded world history."

She also said that while many new vaccines are available now and even more will be ready over the next years, these new vaccines have not been included in the national immunization program. Another obstacle is the lack of knowledge of how much illness, disability and death the pathogen causes.

"Many vaccines are not part of the National Immunization Program for the usual reason that our government cannot afford, or at least it claims to be unable to afford, the addition of vaccines," Loren lamented.

"In the meantime, we cannot let our children be stricken with preventable diseases that have lifelong consequences ranging from hearing loss and speech defects to more severe ones such as brain abscess and meningitis. "

She declared that the best solution to the problem of lack of resources is the partnership between the private and the public sectors. "The private sector is an ideal partner because they have the funding and facility for research while the public sector, particularly institutions such as the Philippine General Hospital, is home to skilled, intelligent and most of all, dedicated health professionals and scientists who are passionate about serving the people. "

She urged the health sector to constantly get in touch with the leaders in government to acquaint them with their needs to ensure a healthy citizenry. For her part, as a legislator, she assured the doctors, nurses, health workers and members of the health industry of her support for their programs and activities.

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