Dengvaxia mess: No room for recklessness when lives are at risk — Duque

Despite claims by government officials of the previous administration that dengue vaccines were acquired in good faith, Health Secretary Francisco Duque said agencies have to be extra careful as lives matter.

“Ang problema dito, dapat kapag buhay ng mga tao ang pinag-uusapan, dapat conservative tayo, we have to exercise prudence and caution,” Duque said in an Friday interview with Radyo Inquirer.

(The problem here is, if we are talking about the lives of people, we have to be conservative.)

“You cannot afford to be reckless and imprudent if you’re talking about lives of people, and let alone lives of children,” he added.

At least 62 children have allegedly died due to complications brought by the dengue vaccine, according to the Department of Health and the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) investigation.

A Senate inquiry has recommended filing cases against government officials of the previous administration who spearheaded the procurement of the vaccines.

Under former Secretary Janette Garin, the Department of Health (DOH) acquired Dengvaxia vaccines worth P3 billion from multinational pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur, for the for national anti-dengue vaccination program.

DOH stopped the program on December 2017, after Sanofi announced that the vaccine could lead to a more severe dengue infection for seronegative patients, or those without dengue infection prior to vaccination.

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On Thursday, a New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) study confirmed Sanofi’s statement, saying that seronegative recipients especially children aged two to eight years old, were at higher risk of a severe dengue.

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Duque believes that the former DOH officials have a responsibility to ensure that the lives of the people would not be placed at risk.

“Hindi pwedeng basta-basta mo na lang ilalagay sa alanganin ang halos 900,000 o isang milyon na kanilang binalak turukan,” he said, responding to claims of involved officials that the acquisition of the vaccines were done in good faith.

(You cannot just place the lives of almost 900,000 individuals at risk, or the one million recipients as originally planned.)

The secretary also said he stands by his previous pronouncements that DOH should have had a testing for a sample size first, for at least 40,000 participants, before distributing it to several children.

“Dapat ang ginawa dyan na tama, ay pilot testing to a limited number of children na pwede mong bantayan,” he added.

(What should have been done instead is to conduct pilot testing among a limited number of children, whom you can watch over.)   /vvp