YEARENDER: Measles outbreak, leadership change at DOH

MANILA, Philippines - For the Department of Health (DOH), 2014 was book-ended by a measles outbreak at year’s outset in many parts of the country, particularly in Metro Manila, and a changing of the guard two months before yearend.

The outbreak was blamed on the low turnout of children during the nationwide supplemental immunization campaign in 2011.

Acting Health Secretary Janette Garin said they had introduced a second dose vaccine for measles in 2010 to effectively combat the disease.

However, parents were apparently used to having only a single dose, which should have completed the protection of children against measles.

Garin said the first dose provides for 85-percent protection against measles, while the second dose would have given the children the remaining 15-percent protection.

The DOH focused on door-to-door vaccination in 2011 and left out children who were not at home when the vaccination teams came.

It had partnered with local government to catch up with vaccinations nationwide.

In September, the DOH conducted a nationwide immunization campaign against measles and rubella for some 11 million children and some 13 million children for polio.

MERS-CoV

During the Lenten season in April, the DOH was looking for the co-passengers of a Filipino nurse returning from the United Arab Emirates, who had tested positive for the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome – Coronavirus (MERS-CoV)

However, the nurse was negative for the virus when he underwent two confirmatory tests at the DOH-run Research Institute for Tropical Medicine.

Despite the results, the DOH created the multi-agency Task Force MERS-CoV.

The task force conducted contract tracing to find the nurse’s 415 co-passengers.

Invoking some local and international laws on quarantine, the DOH   had the names of the passengers who could not be tracked down published in newspapers.

The DOH had underscored the need for them to go to the nearest hospital if they develop any symptom of MERS-CoV.

Ebola virus

As the Ebola virus was spreading in the West African countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, the World Health Organization (WHO) urged the government to send Filipino health workers to help in containing the disease.

Various health and medical organizations opposed the idea for fear that it might open the country’s doors to the virus.

The government refused to heed WHO’s calls. Instead it asked   Filipino workers and peacekeepers in the affected countries to come home.

The biggest batch of returnees was comprised of 133 peacekeepers from Liberia, who were sent to Caballo Island off Cavite for a 21-day quarantine in October.

The quarantine period ended without any peacekeeper developing the disease.

The government has since been implementing mandatory quarantine for all travelers coming from West Africa.

As of Dec. 17, WHO had recorded 18,603 Ebola cases, including 6,915 deaths.

Sierra Leone accounts for 8,356 cases (2,085 deaths); Liberia had 7,797 cases (3,290 deaths); Guinea 2,416 cases (1,525 deaths).

Changing of the guard

Last October, Health Secretary Enrique Ona went on a month-long leave of absence supposedly due to hair dye allergy. 

President Aquino named Garin, who was then undersecretary, as acting health secretary.

It turned out that the National Bureau of Investigation was investigating Ona for the purchase of a more expensive vaccine against pneumonia in 2012.

The DOH had allegedly procured pneumococcal conjugate vaccine-10  (PCV-10) contrary to the recommendation of some experts that PCV-13 was more cost-effective.

Ona is also being investigated for allowing the clinical trials of a possible treatment against malaria and dengue in some DOH-run hospitals in 2012 and 2013.

The experiment involved ActRxTriact or the triple drug combination of oral artesunate, artemether and the herbal-based berberine.

Such was feared to have long-term effects that have not yet been studied adequately, including resistance to anti-malarial drug.

Ona’s leave of absence was supposed to end last Nov. 28, but deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte announced that it had been extended.

Last Dec. 19, Malacañang announced that Ona tendered his resignation and Aquino had accepted it.