House asks DOH: Seek out 900,000 Dengvaxia recipients

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives committee on appropriations asked the Department of Health (DOH) yesterday to seek out the 900,000 schoolchildren who had been inoculated with the controversial dengue vaccine Dengvaxia.

Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles, committee chairman, made the appeal after learning that health workers have not reached out to all of the schoolchildren and their families.

He said the DOH and the entire public health system should prepare for the projected increase in more dengue infections among the children-recipients of Dengvaxia as reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Wednesday.

Nograles said DOH personnel and provincial, city, municipal and barangay health workers should ask the children and their parents who among those inoculated had previous dengue infection and who had not.

“Based on the WHO report, those who had no history of dengue are at high risk of serious infection if they get the virus. Those who had it before are safe. So we focus on those with no history of infection,” he said.

Nograles pointed out that health workers should now closely monitor those at risk and have them brought to the nearest government hospital the moment they show any symptom of dengue.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Duque told the appropriations committee that he expected the number of dengue cases among the 900,000 schoolchildren to increase this year until next year “due to the decreasing protection the vaccine provides.”

Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel asked the committee’s resource persons how many children have died after they were vaccinated. No DOH official could provide an answer.