NORTHERN Mindanao was not included in the now controversial Department of Health (DOH) anti-dengue vaccination program, but health officials admitted Wednesday, December 20, that some children may have gotten the Dengvaxia vaccine through private hospitals and clinics.
Dr. David Mendoza, head of the Regional Epidemiology, Surveillance and Disaster Response Unit of the DOH-Northern Mindanao, said health officials are communicating with private hospitals and private health practitioners who may have inoculated children with Dengvaxia.
"We don't have control over them, so when the National Government launched it mostly in the Luzon, they also got the Dengvaxia. So now, we are communicating with them to improve and increase surveillance and monitoring. Actually, we would like also to prod them on the number of children that were vaccinated with Dengvaxia so that we can focus our monitoring on them," he said in a press conference Wednesday.
"We are trying to ask for the names who were vaccinated to locate them and monitor their cases," Mendoza said.
Mendoza said its office is still yet to receive complaints of the effects of the vaccine, but said there were already calls inquiring what to do if their children had indeed received the vaccination.
Mendoza also advised the public to seek early consultation, if they notice there are "abnormalities."
She also said that the Dengvaxia vaccine has not reached Northern Mindanao because dengue cases have significantly decreased up to 66 percent in 2017 compared to the recorded cases in 2016.
From 17,621 dengue cases in 2016, there were only 6,037 dengue cases reported from January 1 to December 18, 2017, with 19 deaths.
The local government unit with the most reported number of dengue cases is Cagayan de Oro with 1,476 cases.
On November 29, Sanofi Pasteur posted on its website an official statement, saying those who were injected with the vaccine but had not been previously infected may be in danger of contracting a more severe form of the disease.
The Senate has conducted a hearing on the P3-billion anti-dengue vaccination to determine those who are liable in the Dengvaxia mess.