The P3.5 billion anti-dengue immunization program involving Dengvaxia should have not been implemented the way it was done, so said former Health Secretary Enrique Ona when he first appeared at a Senate hearing on Monday.
Ona made the remark when Senator Richard Gordon asked during the ongoing investigation of the Senate blue ribbon committee if he would recommend the use of the vaccine if he were still the Heath Secretary.
“Dapat po this should have not been implemented the way it was done. Meaning, targeting almost a million children because the basis for the issues that were being raised were still a big question mark,” he said.
Pressed further, Ona said he would not recommend the vaccine because the “red” or “yellow” flag was “very clear” already.
“Ibig pong sabihin dapat pag isipan po ng husto kung i-implement po ‘yun. If I were the Secretary of Health, I would not implement it in that extent,” said the former official, who was Secretary of Health from June 2010 to December 2014.
Former Health Secretary Enrique Ona. PHOTO by INQUIRER.net / CATHY MIRANDA
The vaccine was first implemented to school children and youth in early 2016 but its use was suspended late last year after its manufacturer, French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Pasteur, admitted that Dengvaxia could lead to more severe symptoms for people who had not previously been infected with the dengue virus.
READ: Citing risks, DOH stops P3.5-B dengue vaccine drive
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