A group of pathologists from different countries in Asia will examine the effects and safety concerns of Dengvaxia vaccine, subject to the approval by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, who said that the pathologists came from Vietnam, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Singapore, from where the President will choose three experts who will comprise the panel which will look into the matter.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque, however, has yet to confirm if the President will be able to create the panel and the duration of the study. He said that the health experts will be given compensation for their work.
“Mayroon naman po tayong sapat na budget para sila’y imbitahan dito sa Pilipinas at mag-aral doon sa kung anong dapat nilang pag-aralan para magkaroon sila ng konklusyon sa tunay na epekto ng Dengvaxia,” Roque said.
Duque has said that the foreign pathologists will be tasked to scrutinize findings from the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital and the Public Attorney’s Office in relation with the dengue immunization program.
The expert panel’s output and recommendation will be submitted directly to the Department of Justice.
The government will also set up additional mechanisms to ensure their full independence.
Earlier, said that the conflicting findings of the UP-PGH and PAO, which conducted autopsies on children whose deaths were linked to the vaccine, prompted Duterte to “seek further advice” through the foreign panel of experts.
Last February, the UP-PGH said that only three of the 14 children who died of various causes some time after receiving Dengvaxia, died of dengue, and none of the deaths could directly be attributed to the vaccine.
The PAO, however, stood by its findings and has even filed criminal charges against Duque, former Health secretary Janette Garin and several others over the deaths of the schoolchildren administered with the vaccine and later died.
The government, through the Health Department, stopped the dengue immunization program last December after Sanofi Pasteur admitted that the use of the Dengvaxia vaccine must be strictly limited due to evidence it can worsen the disease in people who have not had dengue.
In April, the World Health Organization’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts said the vaccine should only be used after testing on individuals to determine their serotype or whether or not they have been exposed to dengue before.
The DOH had told a congressional probe that some 891,000 children — aged nine and above — from public schools in Metro Manila, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, and Cebu were vaccinated with Dengvaxia since it was launched in April 2016 under the Aquino administration. Out of this number,
87 children have died from dengue and other diseases.