Dengvaxia patients’ list needs subpoena
According to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, although they want to be transparent in their handling of the Dengvaxia controversy, they could not easily share the names of the children. Michael Varcas
MANILA, Philippines — With its hands virtually tied by the National Privacy Commission (NPC), the Department of Health (DOH) will share the master list of school children immunized with Dengvaxia only if ordered to do so by the courts.
According to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, although they want to be transparent in their handling of the Dengvaxia controversy, they could not easily share the names of the children.
“We wrote the NPC to know what we can do since many are asking for the master list. The NPC had already responded and we were told we cannot just share the master list,” he said.
If DOH would release it, Duque noted that the DOH would be violating the Data Privacy Act of 2012, which protects individuals’ personal information.
Earlier, the NPC had cautioned the DOH against releasing the list as such disclosure should have the consent of persons owning the information.
The NPC maintained that the list contains personal data of minors whose parents or guardians need to consent for the information to be released.
Duque noted that the NPC had set various conditions before the master list could be released. If given to the media, the names of vaccinees should be coded.
DOH records showed that around 870,000 individuals were vaccinated with Dengvaxia, most of whom were school children. Around 14,000 were police officers.
Meanwhile, medical practitioners in government will soon undergo enhancement training to enable them to detect and prevent the possible adverse effects of Dengvaxia on the vaccinated children.
The DOH yesterday reported that dengue specialists from the World Health Organization (WHO) will be providing the enhancement training.
“The thrust of this special mission is to strengthen the capacity of local experts to analyze adverse events following immunization and to provide the best possible screening of reactions to immunization,” the DOH said.
Among those attending the weeklong training are physicians of the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) dengue investigative task force, DOH epidemiology bureau and DOH national immunization program.
The PGH group was tasked to look into alleged Dengvaxia-related deaths while the others are reviewing non-fatal adverse events following immunization. – Mayen Jaymalin
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