Palace: Noy officials to blame for vaccine

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang yesterday insisted that the previous administration is to blame for the Dengvaxia mess, which has been worrying parents of students who were administered the dengue vaccine.

Some supporters of former president Benigno Aquino III claimed that the Department of Health (DOH) under former secretary Paulyn Ubial continued the vaccine program despite a resolution stating that Dengvaxia poses health risks.

“Who really allowed the continuation of the DOH program despite issuing a resolution two months earlier that the vaccine is dangerous? Hello Dr. Ubial? This is under Duterte. Not under PNoy,” singer and Aquino supporter Jim Paredes said in his Twitter account.

But Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar disagreed, saying the Aquino administration sealed the deal with Sanofi Pasteur, the manufacturer of the vaccine.

“Who rushed to Paris? Who signed the $70 million deal? It happened during the previous administration,” Andanar told radio station dzBB.

He was referring to former health secretary Janette Garin’s admission that she met with Sanofi officials in Paris to talk about the vaccine.

Andanar said officials of the Aquino administration should attend the Senate inquiry on the issue to explain themselves.

“Voluntarily they should go there and explain why they rushed the $70-million project of the government and Sanofi and where the money came from. Was it a DOH fund? Did it come from other resources? Did it come from savings that were diverted?” he said.

“Why did they fast-track the project even without the go signal of the World Health Organization? They should explain and clarify things. It did not start during our time.”

Ona vs Garin

Former health secretary Enrique Ona yesterday hit back at his successor, Garin, saying that she is responsible for the use of Dengvaxia in the government’s anti-dengue program.

In a statement, Ona noted he was already out of the government service for two years in 2016 “when I first heard that the DOH was going to purchase this new Sanofi Pasteur dengue vaccine, now with a brand name Dengvaxia, to be given to children below nine years (of age).”

“The leadership that took over the DOH after I left on December 20, 2014 is solely responsible for all the decisions that have resulted in what is becoming to be a major health nightmare in the country today,” he added.

The statement was issued after Garin claimed that it was Ona who spearheaded the dengue vaccination program.

Ona clarified that only the clinical trials of Sanofi on the vaccine were being done during his time.

When he was DOH secretary from June 2010 to December 2014, Ona said Sanofi “would request a briefing for me on the status of the clinical trial of their anti-dengue vaccine being tested (phase 3 trial) in Southeast Asia including the Philippines as well as several countries in South America.”

“This occurred almost annually during my term as secretary,” he said.

Ona admitted he had “high hopes, like many others, that the vaccine being developed would eventually control this mosquito-borne disease that afflicts more than a hundred thousand Filipinos annually and scares so many foreign visitors and tourists.

“Unfortunately, during all this time until the end of my term, the Sanofi staff, though optimistic, never claimed that the vaccine was ready for general use and only gave vague projection to me of the time when it may be ready for launching. I recall on more than one occasion that I mentioned in passing to then president Aquino of a possible dengue vaccine that may be ready ‘anytime soon,’” he said.

But he underscored that he did not allocate a budget for dengue vaccine in 2016 “since I considered this vaccine as still at its ‘developmental stage’ and was undergoing further observation and evaluation.”

Ona maintained that under Garin, the DOH procured vaccines for P3.5 billion, “an amount that is more than the entire budget for all other vaccines being procured by the DOH annually.”

Garin is now under fire after Sanofi divulged new findings that giving Dengvaxia to an individual who does not have a history of dengue could result in a more severe infection.

Expanded immunization needed

Amid the mess created by Dengvaxia, the DOH has urged the public not to avoid its immunization program.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said there is no reason for the public to be scared of the agency’s Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) despite the controversy created by Dengvaxia.

“I hope that this development will not in any way affect the EPI because countless numbers of lives are being saved from vaccine preventable diseases and so the value of that had to be preserved,” he told reporters.

Last Nov. 29, Dengvaxia manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur came up with an advisory that the vaccine has “shown consistent and sustained benefit” for those vaccinated and who were previously infected with the dengue virus.

But if given to individuals who do not have history of dengue, severe forms of dengue may occur.

According to Duque, vaccination remains beneficial in preventing vaccine-preventable illnesses.

“Our vaccination program has to be enhanced and strengthened and we are committed to do exactly that as reflected by massive investments that the DOH is preparing for this program,” he noted.

The health chief added that such commitment is reflected in the increase of the budget for immunization from P340 million in 2005 to P7 billion this year.

The EPI covers various illnesses including measles, maternal and neonatal tetanus, polio, diphtheria, pertussis, Hepatitis B, German measles and tuberculosis.

DepEd tracking students

The Department of Education (DepEd) will identify schools where students were administered the anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia.

DepEd sources said Secretary Leonor Briones is issuing a memorandum on “how to monitor” the students.

Briones, for her part, told The STAR that DepEd is “gathering the data.”

However, she pointed out that the data gathering on the administration of the vaccine was “primarily the responsibility of the DOH.”

Some sectors questioned why DepEd allowed the DOH to administer the vaccine and if this was done with the informed consent of parents.

Sources said DepEd’s School Health and Nutrition Center had approved the mass vaccination.

Health officials speak out

The acquisition of the now controversial Dengvaxia was in line with the law, said the head of the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC), which bid out the vaccine.

PCMC executive director Julius Lecciones said the procurement was done by his hospital after they were tasked by the DOH, then headed by Garin, to do so.

“The process was in accordance with procurement law,” he said.

While the procurement only took around 45 days, the PCMC head said the acquisition was not rushed and it was within their standard and the duration set by the law itself.

The procurement was also witnessed by the Commission on Audit and the National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections, he added.

Lecciones added that he was not privy to the reasons the DOH decided to give the task of procurement to PCMC.

He said it might have been a “gamble” taken by the DOH to ensure that timelines would be met.

The hospital head said he understood the reason why the program was time-lined as it was because the vaccination was school-based and that it needed to be administered before the second quarter of the year.

He allayed the worries of more than 1,300 police officers and their families from the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) who got vaccinated.

Lecciones said a referral system was being set up with DOH-accredited hospitals if they would need medical assistance.

Around 840 police officers and their dependents got vaccinated last August to September, according to Chief Insp. Josephine Nandu, head of the QCPD Health Service.

Nandu said all those who were vaccinated at the QCPD will be put under mandatory profiling and observation. With Sheila Crisostomo, Rainier Allan Ronda, Romina Cabrera