PAO official, VACC oppose dengue vaccine

A RANKING official of the Public Attorney's Office (PAO) and the Volunteers against Crime and Corruption (VACC) are against a plan of Department of Health (DoH) Secretary Teodoro Herbosa to introduce a new dengue vaccine, saying it was "no different from the killer Dengvaxia vaccine." In separate interviews, PAO Deputy Chief Erwin Erfe and VACC President Arsenio Evangelista said they could not imagine why the DoH was now promoting the Qdenga vaccine from Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. instead of aggressively implementing its anti-mosquito campaign. "Another new vaccine which is very similar to the Dengvaxia vaccine that killed a thousand Filipino schoolchildren is not the answer against dengue, the DoH secretary and its officials knew that. It's the massive implementation of the campaign to clean the surroundings, that's the solution," they said. Erfe, concurrent director of PAO's Forensics Laboratory Division, said he was "very much concerned" about Herbosa's apparent move to influence the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) into approving the new vaccine by issuing the Certificate of Product Registration (CPR) for it. Based on what he learned about Takeda's vaccine, he said it does not guarantee immunity against dengue. "It's still possible to have dengue again even after vaccination; its protection wanes and, worse, severe dengue remains possible," warned Erfe, who led the autopsy of 169 bodies of mostly schoolchildren who had Dengvaxia shots and whose cause of death bore the same patterns of severe internal bleeding in the brain and lungs, and multiple organ enlargement. According to a Tekada disclosure, "a protective immune response with Qdenga may not be elicited in all vaccinees against all serotypes of dengue virus and may decline over time." "It is currently unknown whether a lack of protection could result in an increased severity of dengue, and it is recommended to continue personal protection measures against mosquito bites after vaccination," the disclosure continued. It also advised individuals who will be vaccinated with Qdenga to "seek medical care if they develop dengue symptoms or dengue warning signs." The disclosure should be enough signal for the concerned health authorities not to rush its FDA approval, Erfe said. "Number 1 rule in medicine is: Do no harm to your patient. If a drug can cause harm, injury, or death, it should be avoided at all costs," he said. Evangelista said Qdenga is "just a new name, but the danger it poses to the health not only of children but also the elderly remains the same." "Have they (DoH and FDA) already forgotten that the former president (in an apparent reference to Rodrigo Duterte) revoked the Dengvaxia certification after hundreds of deaths caused by it and even the Court of Appeals affirmed it?" he said. Without naming names, Evangelista said it was frustrating that "corrupt and greedy people in the government, who are engaged in the vaccine experimental, would not mind if the lives of poor people, especially children, would be sacrificed as long as their pockets and bank accounts are full." A former Herbosa ally, health advocate Dr. Anthony Leachon, told The Manila Times he was not against dengue vaccine. Leachon, the erstwhile special adviser to the National Task Force against Covid-19, said, however, the FDA should meticulously review the clinical documents before issuing a CPR for the new vaccine. "Politicization must be avoided at all costs, and credible, non-partisan actors must be at the forefront of communicating the case for immunization," he said. Herbosa has said the FDA would likely approve the licensing of the Qdenga vaccine. He added there was no need for a nationwide dengue vaccination program.