LINGAYEN, Pangasinan — No child in any public school in Pangasinan was administered with the anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia, the provincial health officer said.
Interviewed by newsmen on the sideline of the Question Hour of the Pangasinan provincial board on Monday, Dr. Anna Teresa de Guzman said no Dengvaxia vaccine was delivered by the Department of Health (DOH) to the province.
She said Pangasinan and other parts of Region 1 were not considered priority areas for the vaccine because they registered low incidence of dengue last year.
Only areas where there was high prevalence of dengue in 2016 were made as pilot areas for the dengue vaccine, de Guzman said.
The priority areas are the provinces of Region III and Region IV-A as well as the National Capital Region (NCR).
De Guzman said Pangasinan was not a priority area because it registered only 3,800 cases of dengue last year as compared to 4,600 cases already registered from January 1 to November this year or an increase of at least 17 percent.
The PHO head, however, believes that private clinics and hospitals in Pangasinan may have availed of the vaccine from the manufacturer and administered this to their patients.
“This is what we are doing today — find out the children who may had been given Dengvaxia by private clinics and hospitals and monitor their health,” De Guzman added.
Under the guidelines of DOH, Dengvaxia was supposed to be administered by city and municipal health centers to public school children aged nine years old and above. (PNA)
