Department of Health (DOH) officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said the DOH is looking into dengue vaccines as cases rise across the country.
Vergeire said at least 23 dengue vaccines are on the emergency medicine list of the World Health Organization, ABS-CBN News reported.
“What we’re doing here in the department would be gathering evidence, studying it, and once we have completed that we’ll be convening our experts,” Vergeire said in ANC’s Headstart.
“So we will study this thoroughly so we can make a recommendation to the President,” she said.
The DOH said 64,797 dengue cases were reported from January 1 to June 25 and the figure is 90 percent higher compared to the reported 34,074 dengue cases during the same period in 2021.
All regions except Ilocos region and Caraga have exceeded the alert/epidemic threshold for the past four weeks, the DOH added.
Reports said the Food and Drug Administration in 2019 revoked the certificate of product registration of Dengvaxia after Sanofi Pasteur failed to submit post-approval requirements.
Earlier, Dr. Edsel Maurice Salvana, a member of the DOH Technical Advisory Group, said that the Dengvaxia vaccine is used in several countries, including the US and Singapore, and that the Philippines is the only country that has revoked the vaccine’s certificate.
Persida Rueda-Acosta, head of the Public Attorney’s Office, has opposed health experts’ call for a second look at the Dengvaxia vaccine amid an outbreak of the disease in several regions, ABS-CBN reported.
