Supplemental budget covers dengue patients

MANILA, Philippines — The P1.161-billion supplemental budget approved by the Senate would cover not only individuals injected with the anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia, but all patients of dengue in the country.

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon yesterday clarified that the Senate version of the supplemental budget measure made no distinction between Dengvaxia vaccinees and people afflicted with dengue.

In the version approved by the House of Representatives, the supplemental budget would be used to fund assistance to Dengvaxia vaccinees only.

However, Drilon introduced an amendment to House Bill 7449 to include all dengue patients, “without any reference to Dengvaxia.”

Drilon pointed out that Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, who was present when the Senate approved the bill, agreed to support the Senate version.

Sen. Loren Legarda, chair of the Senate committee on finance and sponsor of the bill, said the measure will provide medical assistance for hospitalization and out-patient care services to all dengue patients, including those who received Dengvaxia vaccine.

“Through this, we hope to somehow allay fears of the almost 900,000 individuals who were administered with the Dengvaxia vaccine. The Senate version, in fact, widened the scope of the medical assistance program, in terms of beneficiaries as well as covered areas,” she said.

Once the bill is signed into law, the Department of Health (DOH) will issue the guidelines for the availment of the medical assistance program.

Legarda said the funding, which will come from the amount refunded to the government by Dengvaxia manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur, through its local distributor Zuellig Pharma, would be valid until Dec. 31, 2019.

“The health of our people deserves to be on top of government priorities. We need to ensure that dengue patients are helped, processing is fast, monitoring is accurate and, hopefully, prevent further deaths and illnesses of those administered with the vaccine,” she said.

Sen. Richard Gordon aired his confidence that President Duterte will sign the bill immediately once the final copy is transmitted to Malacañang.

“I just hope we will take seriously the lessons learned from the Dengvaxia nightmare,” said Gordon, who led the inquiry into the controversy as chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee.

“The message is that the DOH must act with extraordinary diligence before procuring vaccines unless they are adequately tested so as to protect the public in general and particularly the nation’s children,” he added. 

The DOH yesterday gave assurance of immediate medical assistance for Dengvaxia vacinees with the approval of over P1 billion in supplemental budget.?Duque expressed gratitude for the Senate’s action on their request for additional budget for the estimated 900,000 Dengvaxia vacinees.– With Mayen Jaymalin, Edith Regalado