Tawa-tawa herbal plant has no therapeutic value – DOH

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health (DOH) is not promoting capsules made from the Tawa-tawa herbal plant, or Euphorbia, as cure for dengue which is now rapidly spreading across the country.

According to DOH Undersecretary Eric Domingo, Tawa-tawa capsules are currently registered with the Food and Drug Administration only as a supplement with no therapeutic claims.

Domingo said products must undergo a lot of clinical trials before their therapeutic values can be proven.

He added it is still best for individuals manifesting dengue symptoms to be brought to health care facilities so that their conditions can be confirmed and appropriately managed.

Amid demands to bring back Dengvaxia, DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III said yesterday the vaccine’s protection rate is a low 60 percent.

“The protection rate is 40 to 80 percent, depending on the strain. So, on the average it is only 60 percent,” Duque added. He based his observation on what he’d seen at the Quezon Provincial Hospital.

But the health chief has underscored that it is “premature” to say if this would be factored in by the legal experts of the DOH and the technical team of the FDA.

The DOH and the FDA are looking into the appeal filed with his office by Dengvaxia-manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur last week.

The company had asked the DOH to restore the Certificate of Product Registration (CPR) of the vaccine which was permanently revoked by the FDA last February due to the firm’s failure to comply with some post-marketing surveillance requirements.

Domingo said even if the CPR of Dengvaxia is restored now, the country will not likely see the vaccine in the market soon.

“The CPR was permanently revoked because they failed to submit some regulatory requirements. And even if they get the CPR again, they still have so many things to do first before they make the vaccine available in the market,” he added.

Dengue cases rising nationwide

Meanwhile, the DOH-Center for Health Development in the Caraga region has identified eight barangays across the region as dengue “hotspots.”

Dr. Gerna Manatad, DOH assistant regional director, identified dengue hot spots in Barangay Abilan in Buenavista town, Agusan del Norte; Barangay Pinanaan in Las Nieves, Agusan del Norte; Barangay Daywan in Claver Surigao del Norte; Barangay Maligaya in Rosario, Agusan del Sur; and barangays Canlanipa, Luna, Washington, and San Juan in Surigao City.

Nationwide, monitored dengue-related deaths across the country have risen from 492 last Friday, to 540 yesterday, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said.

Most of the new reported dengue-related deaths and cases were reflected in yesterday’s reports coming from the Bicol region with 4,241 cases and 40 deaths. Also, the NDRRMC’s Office of Civil Defense (OCD) reported yesterday that Central Mindanao recorded 13,128 dengue cases with 56 deaths in the region’s six provinces. In the Cordillera Administrative Region, the OCD said that there were 4,327 monitored dengue cases with nine deaths.

The towns of Gabaldon in Nueva Ecija and Daraga in Albay declared a state of calamity last Monday and Thursday.

Sen. Richard Gordon yesterday called on the public to initiate measures to protect themselves from dengue by cleaning their surroundings every day.

“I am calling on the public to clean their surroundings every day. Destroy all the breeding sites of mosquitoes by cleaning canals, removing stagnant, clean water that can be found in places where these may go unnoticed such as flower vases and other plants, old tires, construction debris, uncollected garbage, and gutters, among others,” he said. – With Ben Serrano, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Jaime Laude