This blogger actually WARNED about this dangerous anomaly in February 2016. Nobody paid attention then, busy with elections forthcoming. But now it's all out! (Read my blog:
Excerpts:
Should the Philippines be proud or be ashamed of prematurely risking the safety of its population, particularly children, just to utilize a P 3.5-billion budget for dengue immunization?
The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization is still reviewing the evidence for the dengue vaccine in question and yet to consider major issues such as vaccine safety, vaccine efficacy, disease burden, programmatic suitability, and cost-effectiveness.
WHO-SAGE is yet to discuss the specified dengue vaccine (CYD-TDH) in April 2016, after which it will provide recommendations to the WHO Director-General on the same and recommendations for use.
Yet here we are with national health authorities ready to treat our grade-school kids like lab animals and guinea pigs!?
The Philippine Senate now responds, eight months after the above post.
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| Photo provided by the Zuellig Pharma Corp. shows laboratory specialists inspecting the dengue vaccine during the launching and press conference at the company laboratories in Parañaque, February 2016. EDD GUMBAN
Probe of dengue vaccine purchase set
By: Christine O. Avendaño, Inquirer
Sen. Richard Gordon said on Tuesday he would seek an investigation into what he said was the “undue haste” in providing a dengue vaccine worth P3.5 BILLION (corrected, the Inquirer story erroneously stated "P3.5 million" - Blogger), to almost half-a-million children during the administration of former President Benigno Aquino III.
Gordon said he and Sen. Nancy Binay were filing a resolution to investigate the immediate provision of the dengue vaccine, despite some questions regarding the safety of the new drug.
During a hearing on the budget of the Department of Health (DOH) Health Secretary Paulyn Jean Ubial assured Gordon that the newly registered vaccine was safe for use.Gordon, however, appeared unconvinced. “There has been an awful lot of questions about this sudden, undue haste in providing the dengue vaccine,” he told reporters after the DOH budget hearing.
The vaccine is the first ever approved for use to prevent dengue, a mosquito-borne disease endemic in the Philippines.
Gordon expressed concern that children here were being used as “guinea pigs” since the country was the first in Asia to implement the vaccination.
The government purchased the dengue vaccine in March this year and was delivered in the same month. The vaccine was just registered by the Food and Drug Authority on Dec. 22, 2015.
The DOH started to give the first of three doses of the vaccine from April to July this year that benefited 489,003 children in Metro Manila, Southern Luzon and Central Luzon, said Health Assistant Secretary Dr. Eric Tayag.
Video on Sen. Gordon's privilege speech on Dengue Vaccine |
