Health groups under the banner of the Coalition for People’s Right to Health expressed alarm over the recent pronouncements of the Department of Health that 62 deaths of children are linked to the botched Dengvaxia program of the government.
The CPRH conducted a protest-action on April 10, 2018 (Tuesday) at the DoH Main Office in Rizal Avenue, Manila where they called for the DoH to step up efforts in monitoring the vaccinated children to prevent further escalation of deaths, push for indemnification from Sanofi and the government for all vaccinated children, and cooperate in seeking accountability from present and former government officials that perpetrated this fiasco.
Dr. Julie Caguiat, co-convener of CPRH, said “The DoH pronouncements should be enough to convince the Duterte government to prioritize this situation by formulating plans to fully address the needs of Dengvaxia-vaccinated children and fully funding the appropriate programs such as giving of “immunization cards” to all vaccinated children, monitoring at the grassroots level, medicines, laboratory testing equipment and hiring of health personnel. The DoH can also push the Duterte administration to pressure Sanofi into putting up an indemnification fund for all the victims because of the multinational company’s late announcement of the danger of Dengvaxia. Because of the events, the government must not put up another program to refacilitate the continuation of the Dengvaxia vaccination, even in the guise of another name.”
“The DoH must fully cooperate in the accountability seeking process from the Dengvaxia fiasco frontrunners such as former officials, President Benigno Aquino III, Secretary Butch Abad, Secretary Janette Garin and other government and Sanofi officials,” Dr. Caguiat concluded.
Launched in 2016, CPRH is a broad formation which brings together service-oriented groups, individuals, non-government organizations, academic institutions, religious groups involved in health apostolate/health ministry, grassroots health activists, patients’ organizations and people’s organizations nationwide.
