Not even President Rodrigo Duterte’s family was spared from the controversial dengue vaccine Dengvaxia.
Special Assitant to the President Bong Go told reporters yesterday that Duterte’s own 14-year-old daughter Veronica “Kitty” Duterte and his grandchild Sabina, the 11-year-old daughter of former Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, were injected with the vaccine.
This morning, Go said that his earlier statement saying that Paolo’s son Uno also received the vaccine was incorrect.
In December, the Department of Health (DOH) stopped itsDengvaxia immunization program — more than a year after it was launched — after the drug’s manufacturer, Sanofi, announced that the vaccine could increase the risk of severe dengue in people who had not contracted the disease in the past.
Being a tropical country, dengue is widespread in the Philippines, with a total of 131,827 dengue cases recorded by the DOH from Jan. 1 to Dec. 2, 2017.
The dengue vaccination campaign approved by former President Noynoy Aquino was meant to decrease the spread of the disease, but the media frenzy surrounding the issue has led people to believe that it had the opposite effect.
In February, the Philippine Government Hospital’s (PGH) Dengue Investigative Task Force (DITF) reported the deaths of 14 children injected with Dengvaxia, worrying the public and parents of those who had also received the vaccine.
Earlier, the Public Attorney’s Office, which has been investigating Dengvaxia cases, reported a “pattern” in the deaths of four Dengvaxia recipients. According to their findings, all four contracted dengue six months after receiving the vaccine.
However, of the 14 deaths, only three were found to have been caused by dengue. According to the DOH, there has been no proof that the deaths were caused by Dengvaxia.
Last month, the DOH said that it had recorded 62 deaths of children who received the vaccine. But, again, the causes of the deaths have yet to be determined by the PGH-DITF.
Duterte’s daughter and granddaughter are just two of the hundreds of thousands of young children who were injected with Dengvaxia.
According to the DOH, approximately 891,000 children from public schools in the regions of Metro Manila, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, and Cebu received the vaccine.
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