OpinionsEcon 101The Dengvaxia scare

The Dengvaxia scare

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Most Filipinos know about dengue, a viral infection transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected female Aedes mosquito.

It is not transmitted directly from person-to- person but it replicates in an infected individual and can be transmitted to other humans through mosquito bites for four to five days (maximum of 12 days) after the first symptoms appear: high fever (40°C/ 104°F), headaches, pain behind eyes, nausea, vomiting, swollen glands; joints, bone or muscle pain, rashes.

These warning signs could lead to severe dengue: severe abdominal pain, persistent vomiting, bleeding gums, vomiting blood, rapid breathing, fatigue/ restlessness. 

Every parent who went through this ordeal knows the physical drain, emotional toll, and financial costs. This phenomenon is worldwide, thus, the thrust to find a vaccine to prevent the occurrence of severe dengue.

In response, Sanofi-Pasteur, a French pharma company, developed Dengvaxia, a dengue vaccine  which was to be  used to help protect you or your child against the dengue disease caused by dengue virus serotypes 1, 2, 3 and 4. 

It contains dengue virus serotypes 1, 2, 3 and 4 that have been weakened. The vaccine works by stimulating the body’s natural defenses, which produces its own protection (antibodies) against the viruses that cause dengue disease, recommended to be given to adults, adolescents, and children 9 through 45 years of age living in endemic areas.

The most common side effects are: headache, muscle pain (myalgia), generally feeling unwell (malaise), feeling of weakness (asthenia), pain in the injection site pain, fever. 

The Health department under then Health Sec. Janette Garin negotiated and purchased the Dengvaxia, and launched Asia’s first public dengue vaccine program in April 2016. 

Recently, the DOH temporarily halted its dengue vaccination program after a new study showed the vaccine poses a risk for those not previously infected by the mosquito-borne virus.

Those at risk are some 733,713 children from Central Luzon, the region of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon, and Metro Manila who were administered with Dengvaxia.

Cebu was recently included in the list of those at risk. 

Eight to 10 percent, or about 70,000 children, have  never had dengue, the DOH added.

Current Health Sec. Francisco Duque said the department has fully paid Sanofi for the vaccines. 

The Health department spent P3.5 billion for the immunization program, a move questioned by some doctors as Dengvaxia has not yet been approved by the World Health Organization.

Health officials said they will profile those who were administered with the vaccine, and impose a five-year post-vaccination surveillance.

To date, there are still almost 800,000 doses that have not been used, amounting to almost P800 million pesos, most of which will expire in August 2018.

House and Senate committees, headed by Sen. Richard Gordon, have conducted hearings since December 2016 to look into the contract to purchase Dengvaxia from Sanofi, questioning the haste in buying the dengue vaccines towards the end of the Aquino administration. 

Have these concerned DOH officials (doctors-healers) forgotten? Corruption kills!

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Author’s email: [email protected]

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