HEALTH Secretary Francisco Duque said a list of health experts will investigate the controversial Dengvaxia vaccine.
“The Office of the President meron na silang listahan of the panel of experts that will finally say what really caused the deaths of the 117 vaccinees,” Duque said in an interview.
This developed following the conflicting findings of experts coming from different stakeholders. These experts were recommended by the Department of Health (DOH) to conduct the intensive study on the Dengvaxia mess.
“Maraming causes ng deaths. Ang position ng University of the Philippines-PGH (Philippine General Hospital) is the deaths could have been caused by either, congenital heart diseases to include, pneumonia, CNS (central nervous system) infections, leukemia, cancer,” Duque added.
He also debunked the information being spread by the experts from the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) who conducted a probe on the deaths that it is caused by the Dengvaxia vaccine injected on the victims.
“That’s the theory that is being propounded by the public attorney’s office but they better just be good lawyers than pretending to be doctors,” he said.
Duque maintained that based on the investigation conducted by UP-PGH Dengvaxia Investigative Task Force, the deaths are attributed to the illnesses that the patients had already been suffering.
“They are also saying that perhaps, if there is anything to do with Dengvaxia, it is probably because of vaccine failure hindi nabigay ng sapat na protection yong Dengvaxia. Kaya nong nagkaroon ng dengue sila at nagkaroon ng parang secondary infection don nagkaroon ng severe dengue na tinatawag,” he added.
On December 1, 2017, Duque issued a hold order and suspended the massive dengue immunization program following the admission of the manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur that the dengue vaccine posed risky severe symptoms for individuals who were not previously infected by the dengue virus.