MANILA — An official of the Department of Health (DOH) has proposed that a research study be conducted to establish if the Dengvaxia dengue vaccine caused the deaths of children included in the immunization program of the government in 2016.
DOH Calabarzon Regional Director Eduardo Janairo suggested that a national government-funded research will make a comparison between non-Dengvaxia recipients who died of dengue or its complications and those immunized with the dengue vaccine.
“That will aid in comparative data analysis,” Janairo told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) at the sidelines of the DOH Calabarzon and National Capital Region event in Quezon City on Wednesday.
Calabarzon covers the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon.
Janairo said that a study would somehow help in establishing a possible link of the vaccine to alleged deaths that had been recorded among the recipients of the Dengvaxia.
He said it is important to do a study also among the non-vaccinees who died of dengue to find out if the pre-existing conditions that had been observed among other recipients have similarities with those who died after receiving the Dengvaxia vaccine.
“The best connection is sana gawin ng UP o … kahit PAO mag-autopsy ng mga pasyente na hindi na-dengue o hindi naturukan ng vaccine ng Dengvaxia pero namatay sa leukemia yung mga kinamatay ng bata (The best connection that we can do is to possibly let it be done by researchers from UP [University of the Philippines] or even from PAO [Public Attorney’s Office] who will also do an autopsy of patients who have not contracted dengue or who are non-vaccinees but have died of leukemia),” he said.
He said that there is a need to compare to find out if the same clinical presentation is visible or not between the two samples.
He said that the study would also help determine if some illnesses that are present among those who died were triggered by the vaccine.
Janairo said that as of now they had been discussing the proposal with Health Undersecretary Enrique Domingo to explore how to proceed with the funding.
The health official said that it is important also to conduct a study on the blood samples of those who were vaccinated for further comparison. ( Leilani Junio/PNA)
