4 families to file raps over Dengvaxia deaths

MANILA, Philippines — The Public Attorney’s Office will file criminal charges against 20 individuals believed to be responsible for deaths allegedly linked to Dengvaxia, a PAO official said yesterday.

PAO chief Persida Rueda Acosta said they would file the complaints before the Department of Justice at around 11 a.m. today on behalf of four families whose children died after receiving the anti-dengue vaccine.

Acosta refused to identify the people included in the charge sheet and the specific cases that would be filed.

“The families will be filing the criminal cases,” she said.

Acosta said PAO pathologists have finished the histopathological examination of the tissues of the alleged victims.

She said the results matched their initial findings that the deaths were related to Dengvaxia.

Health officials have questioned the PAO autopsy and qualifications of those who conducted it. The officials have stressed that there is still no conclusive finding that Dengvaxia caused any of the deaths. 

Last February, the PAO filed a civil suit against Sanofi Pasteur, the manufacturer of Dengvaxia, former health secretary Janette Garin and other government officials.

The Duterte administration has scrapped the anti-dengue immunization program, which was implemented during the term of former president Benigno Aquino III.