Dengvaxia scare hits Davao

After overcoming the reluctance of some parents to have their children vaccinated against measles in the wake of the Dengvaxia scandal, Davao City health workers were finally able to administer the antimeasles shots with the help of other children amused at the hysterical reaction of some of their playmates. —ARJOY M. CENIZA

DAVAO CITY — The health scare brought by the scandal over Dengvaxia, an antidengue vaccine, appears to have rubbed off on residents here during the implementation of a city government-sponsored measles vaccination program.

A woman, who asked that she not be identified for privacy reasons, initially refused to have her 2-year-old son vaccinated against measles, saying the boy could suffer the same fate as children injected with Dengvaxia.

Dengvaxia, of the pharmaceutical firm Sanofi, became controversial after it was found that even children who have had no previous exposure to dengue were given the vaccine, which makes dengue deadlier for those who have not been afflicted with the mosquito-borne disease.

Assurances

It took a lot of convincing for the woman to allow her son to be vaccinated for measles, including an assurance from health workers that the vaccine her son was to receive has had no negative effect in all the years it had been used.

The woman, a bakery aide here, yielded. “I am more scared of my son dying of measles,” she said.

Health workers here were working against time and through reluctant parents to arrest a possible outbreak of measles as more people—mainly children—showed symptoms attributable to the deadly, but preventable, disease.

The city health office said it has been conducting massive vaccination of children aged 0-5 years old, after it monitored a resurgence in measles cases since November.

Over 6,000 children had since received antimeasles shots to prevent them from acquiring the viral disease.

Spike in cases

Dr. Josephine Villafuerte, city health officer, said for the first 12 days of this month alone, health workers had monitored 68 cases of measles, or nearly three cases per day.

She said the 68 cases monitored from Jan. 1 to 12 had caused the number of measles cases reported starting in November to rise to 222.

She said most of the cases were monitored in urban Davao, meaning the most populated areas of the city.

Villafuerte said among the cases recorded during the first 12 days of the year were that of 16 call center agents.

She said those found positive of measles were advised to go on quarantine.

As a result of the rising number of measles cases, she said the city health office decided to conduct an “Outbreak Response Immunization” or ORI.

“We decided to immediately conduct the ORI because children are the most vulnerable ones in times of a measles outbreak,” said Villafuerte.

“We intend to cover the entire city to ensure that the children are safe and protected,” she said.

She said the vaccination program was being conducted in all of the city’s 182 villages. ALLAN NAWAL AND ARJOY CENIZA