Former Health Secretary Janette Garin, now Iloilo representative, has pleaded not guilty to eight counts of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) in connection with alleged Dengvaxia-related deaths of some schoolchildren.
Meanwhile, the government was urged to use all measures to ward off dengue infection.
RTC Judge Joselito Bautista, who presided at Garin’s arraignment on July 7, set Garin’s hearing for a three times a week starting Aug. 1.
The Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) represented the kin of the children who reported died after receiving doses of the Dengvaxia vaccine in 2016 under Garin watch as Health secretary until outgoing Health Secretary Francisco Duque III took over.
“I am not surprised at all when Garin recently came forward to support the Dengvaxia vaccine,” PAO chief Persida Rueda-Acosta told the media.
“I was expecting that,” she said.
Garin and infectious disease expert Dr. Rontgene Solante backed the reevaluation of the use of the Dengvaxia vaccine amid the rising cases of dengue.
Garin said the government should reconsider the revocation of the Dengvaxia’s certificate of product registration.
“Seven days before the Department of Budget and Management, the Department of Health and the Philippine Children’s Medical Center paid Dengvaxia maker Sanofi for the procurement of the vaccine,” Rueda-Acosta said.
“Dengvaxia has four side effects as admitted by Sanofi in December 2015 before the Philippine government bought the vaccine. These are allergic anaphylactic reaction, viscerotropism, neurotropism and severe dengue,” Acosta told the Manila Standard.
The Philippine government should use everything at its disposal, including the Dengvaxia vaccine, in order to combat the spike in dengue cases, a medical expert said on Thursday.
A total of 64,797 dengue cases were reported from January 1 to June 25, the Department of Health’s latest data showed.
The figure is 90 percent higher compared to the reported 34,074 dengue cases during the same period in 2021, the health agency said.
All regions except Ilocos and Caraga have exceeded the alert/epidemic threshold for the past four weeks, the DOH added.
Dengvaxia is used in the US, Europe, and Singapore, according to Dr. Edsel Salvana, a member of the DOH technical advisory group.
“Meron ngang pumupunta ng Singapore dahil aprubado naman doon…The bottomline is we should look at all these tools,” he said in a televised briefing.
“We should keep an open mind all the time.”
(Some even go to Singapore to get vaccinated with Dengvaxia because it’s approved there.)
The public is reminded that Dengvaxia can only be administered to persons who have had at least one dengue infection, Salvana said.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2019 revoked the certificates of product registration of Dengvaxia after Sanofi Pasteur failed to submit post-approval requirements.