Senate approves P1.16B supplemental budget for Dengvaxia recipients

Updated (10:00 p.m.)

The Senate on Wednesday approved on third and final reading the proposed additional P1.16 billion budget intended for recipients of the Dengvaxia vaccine.

Senator Loren Legarda, who co-sponsored House Bill No. 7449 with Senator Richard Gordon, said the supplemental budget would be used to address the needs of those who have been injected with the anti-dengue vaccine.

“The above allocation will also be used to provide medical assistance for hospitalization, out-patient care services, procurement of supplies and medicine,” Legarda said in a statement.

All 18 senators present voted for the bill’s passage, which was certified as urgent by President Rodrigo Duterte.

According to Legarda, the measure would help allay the fears of children and parents, as the scope of the program will accommodate a larger number of people.

“The Senate version, in fact, widened the scope of the medical assistance program, in terms of beneficiaries as well as covered areas,” she said.

The budget will be sourced from the refund of the unused dengvaxia vials from Sanofi Pasteur, which manufactured the vaccine.

In December 2017, the country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stopped the distribution of Dengvaxia after Sanofi Pasteur admitted that immunization could be dangerous among seronegative recipients, or those who have not been infected with the dengue virus before vaccination.

According to Department of Health, more than 830,000 individuals, mostly children, had been vaccinated under the government’s P3 billion anti-dengue immunization program.

An inquiry by both chambers of Congress has found former government officials, including former President Benigno S. Aquino III, possibly liable for negligence for purchasing Dengvaxia. /ee

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