LAS Pinas City Mayor Imelda Aguilar has ordered the City Health Office and the City School administration to conduct strict monitoring of children who were given the anti-dengue vaccine as she appealed for calmness following the controversy over the effect of mass vaccination on recipients.
Aguilar said the monitoring was intended to come up with the city’s own database on the recipients of the vaccine, which can serve as the basis for coordination with the efforts conducted by the Department of Health.
The mayor said a total 48,996 children in the city had been vaccinated by Dengvaxia since it started in 2016 when the DoH launched the mass vaccination program.
Of the total, 7,215 children were vaccinated at the schools while 41,781 children were vaccinated at the barangay health centers.
“This is to ensure the parents and the community that city government is doing its best to address the possibility of adverse effects of the dengue vaccine so that proper intervention can be undertaken,” Aguilar said in a statement.
She also allayed the fears and apprehension of parents and the community over the possibility of harmful effects to the children who were given the vaccine.
She also encouraged them to reach out to their respective health workers in the barangays as well as the City Health Office at the City Hall compound.
The schools, in coordination with the barangays, will lead in the education and information campaign on cleanliness and proper sanitation.
City health personnel and barangay health workers have been deployed to conduct house-to-house data gathering and give pointers to parents and adults on how to monitor symptoms of dengue on children.