DOH to stop using Dengvaxia

The Department of Health will not be using the Dengvaxia vaccine anytime soon, after the World Health Organization (WHO) stressed a pre-screening is needed before administering it to patients.

Health Undersecretary Rolando Enrique Domingo said the report of the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization backed the DOH’s decision to suspend its dengue immunization program.

“It strengthens our position to stop the vaccination and that Dengvaxia should not be included in the mass immunization program. I don’t think it will change in one to two years,” Domingo said.

He added: “There will be no immunization with Dengvaxia possibly in the next two years.”

Domingo made the remarks in a press briefing on Friday, following the WHO’s release of its recommendation on the controversial anti-dengue vaccine.

On Thursday night, the WHO said the use of Dengvaxia must be accompanied with a pre-screening of would-be recipients to determine if they have been previously infected with the dengue virus.

This was after Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccine maker, admitted last year that Dengvaxia may increase the risk of severe dengue for sero-negative patients, or those who had no prior dengue infections.

This prompted the DOH to suspend its Dengvaxia immunization program and to strictly monitor the health of more than 837,000 school children who received the vaccine.

While stressing that a pre-screening is needed, Domingo pointed out that there is no rapid diagnostic test for dengue that is available at the point of vaccination.

“It will take another one to two years before a validated test for screening is produced, since there are no commercially available tests right now,” he said.

The health undersecretary added that once the test is developed by researchers and scientists, it would still have to be tested for its sensitivity to detect previous dengue infections.

“So at this time, if you need to screen patients there is no way to pre-screen them right now,” Domingo said.

He pointed out that Dengvaxia is also off the market for a year following the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to revoke its certificate of product registration.

“I think the prudent decision of the DOH to suspend the use of Dengvaxia has been supported by the recommendation of the WHO SAGE panel,” Domingo added.