MANILA, Philippines — President Duterte would listen to the recommendation of the health department on calls to restore the Dengvaxia vaccine program to address the dengue outbreak in the country, Malacañang said yesterday.
Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said there is a need to study the safety of the vaccine so the government could identify solutions to the rising dengue cases.
“He (Duterte) said this requires study because experts are not yet sure about (the safety of Dengvaxia). But he said he would listen to the recommendation of the secretary of health, he would listen to the doctors,” Panelo said in a radio interview.
The Duterte administration discontinued the P3.5-billion vaccination program after its manufacturer Sanofi found that Dengvaxia could raise the health risks of those who have not contracted the dengue virus.
Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo previously said Dengvaxia’s certificate of product registration has been revoked permanently due to non-compliance with regulatory requirements.
Former health secretary and now Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin and doctors’ group Doctors for Truth and Public Welfare have asked the government to make Dengvaxia available to physicians so they can offer it to patients.
Asked what the government would do to solve the dengue problem while the safety of Dengvaxia is being studied, Panelo replied: “Number one is prevention; number two, for those who are sick, we will treat them.”
Panelo said there is a need for a test that would determine whether a patient had been sick of dengue. The health department has recorded more than 106,000 dengue cases this year.
“Dengvaxia can be used for patients who had dengue fever. That will surely help. The problem is how do we know if one had dengue or not? We need to have a test. If we have that, there’s no problem. We can use that for those who have contracted dengue,” the spokesman said.
Panelo said the dengue outbreak may be included in the agenda of today’s Cabinet meeting in Malacañang.
Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza, however, warned the government against reusing Dengvaxia as a solution to the surge of dengue.
The lawmaker argued that the current increase in dengue cases could actually be an indication of non-efficacy of the dengue immunization vaccine used during the previous administration.
“In fact, now is the best time to find out whether the forced vaccinations done in the past are the cause of this upsurge, or if it is safe and effective, as claimed by those who implemented the program,” he said in a statement over the weekend.
Atienza stressed that the Food and Drug Administration had banned Dengvaxia use, while its manufacturer Sanofi admitted that the vaccine was misused.
“Government should first determine if many of those infected with dengue now had been vaccinated with Dengvaxia in the past. If they had indeed been vaccinated before, then this clearly shows that the vaccine is not safe and is in fact causing this problem now,” he suggested.
But if proven otherwise, Atienza said the government should “clear those falsely suspected of causing the problem.”
“If many of them were not vaccinated with Dengvaxia before, then let us absolve former health secretary Janette Garin and former president Noynoy Aquino. But if the vaccine aggravated the situation, then those responsible should be charged and jailed,” he added.
Garin and other former health officials are facing criminal charges before the court over the deaths of schoolchildren inoculated with Dengvaxia. She is also facing plunder charges before the Office of the Ombudsman along with Aquino over the procurement of the P3.5-billion vaccines.
More Negros LGUs declare outbreak
The local government of Kabankalan City and Murcia town in Negros Occidental have declared dengue outbreaks in their areas.
Kabankalan City Mayor Pedro Zayco disclosed that they already made an emergency purchase of medicines worth P4 million to combat dengue, on top of medicines they received from the Provincial Health Office.
The Provincial Health Office reported that dengue cases in Negros Occidental had reached 4,230, with 27 deaths this year.
Kabankalan City and Murcia were among five areas in Negros Occidental that the Provincial Health Office had recommended for declaration of dengue outbreaks.
Dengue cases were most pronounced in Kabankalan City with 598, while Murcia had 147 cases, with one death, from January to July 20 this year.
A memorandum circular has been issued to all 25 barangay captains of Kabankalan City, to implement the anti-dengue programs starting today.
Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson earlier issued Executive Order No. 19-19, declaring a dengue heightened alert in Negros Occidental. – With Gilbert Bayoran