Dengvaxia probe may tap foreign expert

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Justice (DOJ) is considering getting a foreign expert to examine the bodies of children suspected to have died due to the controversial anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia.

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said there is a need to get a forensic pathologist to conduct a third-party test on the alleged victims to settle the issue on the forensic examination conducted by the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), which was questioned by a panel of doctors from the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) led by former health secretary Esperanza Cabral.

Aguirre believes that the foreign expert, preferably a clinical pathologist, should be independent of any affiliation from parties involved in the Dengvaxia controversy.

“It will not be a Filipino. It will come from abroad who can establish definitely the linkage between Dengvaxia and the death or injuries suffered by the students,” Aguirre explained in a press conference yesterday.

He said he would ask for President Duterte’s approval on this matter in their meeting today at the Palace to be attended also by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, presidential spokesman Harry Roque, PAO chief Persida Acosta, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea and Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption chairman Dante Jimenez.

Aguirre revealed that he has discussed the proposal with Duque, who agreed with him that the bodies autopsied by the PAO forensics team led by Erwin Erfe be re-examined by a “clinical pathologist we can consider really expert on this matter.” 

“I think we agreed that Dr. Erfe is only a medico legal officer so his opinion – if he made an opinion on the deaths from Dengvaxia – did not come from an expert opinion,” the DOJ chief explained. 

On the other hand, Aguirre said the findings of the PGH panel were also inconclusive and actually not reliable.

“The weakness of the basis of the PGH doctors is that they did not examine the actual tissues (of the bodies) because their report was only based on the report of Dr. Erfe,” he stressed. 

Only three of the 14 children autopsied by the PAO were due to dengue, two of which might be caused by vaccine failure, according to the PGH panel report.

Despite the lack of clear expert findings, Aguirre said that the PAO will still continue to conduct autopsies of suspected Dengvaxia victims.  

To recall, the DOJ tapped the PAO last December to provide legal assistance to victims of deaths and severe illnesses stemming from the public immunization of the vaccine.

Through Department Order No. 792, the PAO was specifically tasked to “extend free legal assistance in civil, criminal and administrative cases to all possible victims of Dengvaxia related injuries, illnesses and deaths.”

Acosta then tapped a team of PAO lawyers to gather statements and documentary evidence from parents and guardians of children who developed severe dengue after getting the Dengvaxia vaccine.

She also tapped Erfe to conduct the autopsies. His reports on previous cases have been submitted to and accepted by courts as valid evidence.

Several parents have already sought assistance of Acosta’s office in this issue.

Apart from the PAO, the DOJ also ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to probe the controversial P3.5-billion dengue vaccine project that reportedly poses health risks to children who had been injected but without history of the disease.

Aguirre tapped the NBI to conduct a fact-finding probe to determine possible liabilities of officials behind the project that was approved by former health secretary Janette Garin during the previous administration.