DOH stand on Dengvaxia ‘stronger’

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Friday said the results of a recent study on Dengvaxia further strengthened the position of the Department of Health (DOH) that the dengue vaccine should not have been fully rolled out and given to close to a million recipients.

Duque said the government should have acted more conservatively when it purchased the P3.5 billion worth of vaccine.

Following confirmation that Dengvaxia may be harmful to children with no prior dengue infection, Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine’s French manufacturer, should now acknowledge that it made a mistake in “prematurely and recklessly hawking” the vaccine to the Philippine government, Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel said on Friday.

Pimentel, chair of the House committee on public accountability, said officials of Sanofi should assume responsibility for the mistake by either returning the entire P3.5 billion spent by the government for the 3 million doses of the vaccine, or by putting up an indemnity fund for the children who fell sick after receiving the shots. —JOVIC YEE AND JEROME ANING