Pimentel wants power of Health chief to choose vaccines clipped

Amid the Dengvaxia controversy, Senate President  Aqulino ‘Koko” Pimentel III  now wants  to remove the  Secretary  of Health’s “unfettered discretion”  to choose  the types of vaccines  that may be included in the  government’s basic immunization program.

Instead, Pimentel proposes that this power be transferred to  Congress.

His proposal  was contained  in  Senate Bill  No. 1743 that seeks to amend Republic Act No. 10152 or the “Mandatory Infants and Children  Heath Immunization Act of 2011.”

Pimentel said the law was enacted  to address the  then-growing number of newborns and children  infected  with the Hepatitis-B virus.   Aside from  Hepatitis-B,  the law also mandates immunization for other  seven diseases like tuberculosis, tetanus, measles  and mumps.

“The law also gave unfettered  discretion  to the Secretary of Health to determine such other types of vaccines that may be  included in the mandatory  basic immunization program. It is this latter feature of the law that this bill seeks to address,”  he said  in the explanatory note of his bill.

The Senate leader  noted that in the light of the ongoing controversy over  the dengue vaccine, Dengvaxia, it has become  clear that  the Health Secretary   has the  power to “overrule reservations of other experts as regards what other vaccines should be administered to our children.”

“The danger of relying on the wisdom of one  individual on a matter as vital as the health of our children has been made painfully clear to us  all,”  Pimentel said.

“Hence, this bill proposes to repeal the Secretary of Health’s power to include vaccines in the mandatory basic immunization program.”

Any proposal to add other types of vaccines to those enumerated in the law, he said,  must be made before Congress, which should amend the law if it agrees that the proposed addition was necessary.

“For the sake of our children—and the sake of our health  officials too— the  responsibility of deciding what vaccines our children are required to receive should not be borne  by one person alone,” the Senate leader added.    /muf

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