Dengvaxia Issue in the Philippines: An Honest Mistake

Driven by poverty and the lack of proper hospitalization for their beloved children, thousands of parents were happy to know that the government was offering free dengue vaccination to many students of public schools in the country. There was a target of at least 800,000 students to be given the free vaccination while the ultimate plan was to distribute the vaccines to more than 1 million Filipinos according to the Department of Health (DOH) in the Philippines to be launched in April 2016. The government spent 3 billion pesos for the purchase of the vaccines. It began distributing them to public schools nationwide.

After a year of the release of the world’s first dengue vaccine, Dengvaxia was reported to having a side effect to patients without prior records of dengue virus. On August 30, 2017, French pharmaceutical Sanofi Pasteur advised the public that the vaccine produces more risks for patients who have not infected with the dengue virus. This was different from their previous statement about the safety and assurance of an effective dengue vaccine.

It seems like the trust of a long-running pharmaceutical on earth has been put to challenge. 4 people died after the first shot. Up to the present, there were already 26 people who died while 725 are now still being monitored at the hospitals. Prior to this, the World Health Organization (WHO) threw a statement that Dengvaxia is safe and that it should be applied in the country, so the Department of Health or DOH was confident and happy as it began its first operation on Dengvaxia vaccination.

The said health department was also alarmed by the increasing rate of dengue victims in the county that it reached 78 thousands of victims nationwide in 2015. Desperate in moving towards solving the problem, it immediately approved the purchase of the vaccine, and in 2016, it held a partnership with the Department of Education to assist in the conduct of the vaccine. The plan was even to operate the vaccination to more than 1 million people throughout the Philippines as of April 2016.

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The company provided dengue vaccines to most affected by the dengue virus such as Latin America and Asia 20 years ago to. There were 40,000 people from 15 countries who participated in clinical tests, revealing an 80% reduction in the risk of medication after being injected by the vaccine. By features, Dengvaxia provides protection from all 4 dengue strains to which people without past infection could be administered the injection in 3 doses every 6 months. So the DOH ordered public schools to program the injecting of the vaccine to all children under the set number of beneficiaries to be given.

Not just the Philippines, there were also other countries that approved the release of Dengvaxia. These are Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Indonesia, Singapore, and Thailand with the knowledge that Sanofi is accredited as the world’s trusted vaccine provider with many complications such as tetanus, polio, rabies, typhoid, influenza, poliomyelitis and others.

Upon its approval, Dengvaxia was the hope of the DOH in the prevention of dengue, with notion that the drug could save millions of lives. Dengue is endemic in the Philippines with 97, 287 cases of dengue recorded nationwide from 2016 to 2017. There are thousands of contaminated rivers and canals throughout the Philippines. There are also many informal settlements where cleanliness is not even in the minds of the people.

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Most of the victims of the dengue virus are poor and only depend on the government’s subsidies and health care. So the DOH takes the full responsibility of them. No doubts why it had to approve immediately the vaccines to be delivered to the country. It was an honest mistake.

It trusted fully the safety of the vaccines from Sanofi. It even ordered compulsory conduct of the vaccination to schools to effectively follow the plan of lessening the case. While the parents had an option to reject the free vaccination to their children, public schools were strictly ordered to do the distribution. That is why after knowing the devastating effect of the drug, it also immediately ordered cancellation of the on-going operation, leaving 1.9 billion worth of Dengvaxia unused and at least 400 thousand children not yet injected the vaccines.

The parents of the victims today mourn the incidents. Parents of those who already died are calling for justice against the responsible actors of the operation, especially the Sanofi, and others call for the imprisonment of the officials in the previous administration that they should have prevented the case.

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Moreover, they also have been allegedly accused of improper monitoring of the victims. A parent stated that her child could have been saved if the government strictly ordered private hospitals to allow patients with Dengvaxia-related illnesses even if the parents could not afford the hospitalization. A report was aired last year that there were health institutions rejecting dying patients who could not pay the downpayment and only endorsed them to seek medication to other hospitals.

The lost lives could not be restored. At least the responsible should shoulder the issue and take full accountability of the action. What the parents want is justice. Whether it was an honest mistake or not, there must be people to be filed a case. Sanofi already refunded 1.9 billion worth of Dengvaxia not yet injected, but is it enough? The parents want Sanofi to be held accountable for the false statements that Dengvaxia is safe to people who have never infected the Dengue virus in the past.

The current administration made a statement saying that it will not charge a case against the responsible people for this but will take full pledge to aid the medication of those who are still in the hospitals. The President today also said he would have also made the same thing if he was already the President in the past administration. Nobody knew that it would happen. What they were expecting is that finally the issue of dengue would already be addressed.

I remember the post of @canadian-coconut about vaccinations before. I'm not trying to make any conclusions, but could it be that Dengvaxia is among those vaccines that were mentioned on her post. Could this really be happening?