Moms Take a Stand for Proactive Prevention against Vaccine-Preventable Diseases
Moms are superheroes. They take care of you from the moment you were born until you can be independent. The first few years of life is the most crucial and keeping you free of sickness is on her checklist.
With the many roles moms have to play, keeping the family happy and healthy is always top priority. This becomes even more challenging when the rainy season ushers in even more diseases, but with the unpredictability of the weather nowadays, how can moms keep their families safe from illnesses all year round?
Mommy Mundo and the Philippine Foundation for Vaccination (PFV) has banded together to help address these concerns and educate mothers on proactive family prevention through “Mom Protect.”
Recent health news on mosquito-borne diseases like Dengue and Japanese encephalitis, as well as highly-communicable ones like flu sound scary if they aren’t very familiar with ways to prevent them. But with the right knowledge and partners with the same goal, moms can rise shoulder to shoulder in protecting families against these vaccine-preventable illnesses.
“Mom Protect” highlights the importance of awareness of and access to new and better health prevention methods as family health and wellbeing is any mom’s top priority.
“We’ve seen the effect misinformation can have on mothers like in the recent Japanese encephalitis outbreak scare,” said Dr. Cecilia Montalban, President of the Philippine Foundation for Vaccination. “By leading moms to helpful, effective, and efficient solutions against vaccine-preventable diseases, we’ll be empowering them to live worry-free through proactive protection and prevention.”
A proactive approach against unpredictable foes
The government has consistently emphasized the importance of vector control to stay vigilant and be prepared against diseases, especially those that are mosquito-borne this rainy season. Though the practice has helped communities prevent outbreaks, Dr. Montalban urges moms to take a more proactive approach when it comes to family.
“Prevention is always better than cure, especially if cure is not always available,” Dr. Montalban said. “Advances in medical science have given us highly effective ways to avoid the pain and costs of diseases through vaccination.”
Proactive prevention constitutes a three-pronged strategy: Awareness, Diligent practice, and Sharing.
First, moms are encouraged to become actively aware and alert by reaching out to their doctors to know more about prevention methods they can do or apply at home. This is also to ensure that they are thoroughly updated on new medical developments that might be of help in the future.
After, diligent practice of learnings received—even when children are past toddler-age—is recommended as consistency is key in building and fortifying family health and resiliency.
Finally, passing accurate information forward to other mothers is important. Dr. Montalban encourages moms to join communities online to connect with people who share the same experience and those who have successfully combatted these illnesses.
Standing together
Through the Mom Protect discussion, Mommy Mundo and the PFV aspire to give Filipino families peace of mind amid public health concerns by thorough preparation together.
“We are hopeful that with our unified and strengthened resolve as mothers to quell worries with this forum, our families can live healthy and confidently no matter what the season.”
“With the information and resources already available to us moms, we know casualties of any of these diseases will lessen and lessen until there are none at all,” Dr. Montalban added.
