A party-list lawmaker on Friday sought a congressional investigation into the move of the Department of Health to suspend its current anti-pneumonia vaccine for children.
Anakalusugan Party-list Rep. Mike Defensor, chairman of the House committee on public accounts, expressed the intention of his committee to review the reported move of the DOH to suspend the bidding for PCV-13 vaccine purchase program worth P4.9 billion and allow a bidder offering PCV-10.
“We will eventually investigate the efficacy of PCV-10 vis-a-vis PCV-13. There are models all over the world. I hope the DOH can justify their stand,” Defensor told reporters.
Defensor said his committee will conduct the investigation in aid of legislation “later on.”
“We do not want to take away the focus of DOH now in containing the spread of nCoV [2019 novel coronavirus acute respiratory disease],” he explained.
Defensor said in the event that his committee begins the congressional probe, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III should be prepared to answer questions from legislators on the issue involving pneumonia vaccine for children.
Deputy Minority Leader and Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin earlier questioned the decision of DOH to suspend the bidding for PCV-13 vaccine and allow a bidder offering PCV-10.
The DOH has been using PCV-13 intended to protect children from 13 types of pneumococcal bacteria, since 2014. PCV-10, on the other hand, covers only 10 types of bacteria.
Garin, a former DOH secretary, said purchasing PCV-10 is a “step backward.” She noted the vaccine has less efficacy in preventing pneumonia among children aged 5 and below in the country, likening it to “getting a Betamax when you’re already using a VHS player.”
Garin sais that “PCV-13 is more effective in preventing pneumonia as it covers more bacteria as compared to PCV-10.”
The DoH earlier announced PCV-10 would go through further study in the Health Technology Assessment Council (HTAC), an agency attached to the DOH which was created by the Universal Health Care Act of 2018.
World Health Organization (WHO) data showed that nearly1 million children five-years-old and below had been killed by pneumonia or pneumonia-related diseases worldwide in 2015 alone.
In the Philippines, the ratio of deaths to children as a result of pneumonia is 23.4 per 100,000, making the country among 15 in the world that account for three-fourths, or 75 percent, of all childhood pneumonia cases, according to multiple reports.