Solons to question abrupt termination of House inquiry on dengue vaccine

Suspicions of cover up in the House inquiry into the controversial Dengvaxia vaccine will be raised when the chamber’s Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability revives the probe on December 13, six months after terminating the proceedings.

Senior Deputy Minority Leader and BuhayPartylist Rep. Lito Atienza said the House panel, together with the Committee on Health, should come up with a good reason why the probe was put to an abrupt end last July.

Both House panels that were tasked to conduct a joint inquiry failed to submit a report of the probe which was expected a few weeks after the proceedings were terminated.

Atienza said the health panel, which conducted several hearings on the Dengvaxia issue a few months prior to the joint inquiry, should be held equally liable as the Department of Health (DOH) for failing to suspend the Dengvaxia vaccination program before it could be administered to 733,000 public school children.

Quezon Rep. Angelina Tan, health committee chairperson, has claimed that she submitted a committee report to the good government panel as soon as the House Committee on Rules decided that a joint inquiry be conducted about March, 2017.

On the other hand, Nueva Ecija Rep. Estrellita Suansing, author of one of five resolutions filed last year proposing a congressional investigation into the controversy, said the health committee had agreed to ask DOH to temporarily stop further vaccination of Dengvaxia last February.

During that time, only 400,000 were given the anti-dengue shots. A total 733,000 enrollees in public elementary schools in three Luzon regions have already been vaccinated when the DOH, acting on the Dengvaxia manufacturer’s test conclusions, suspended the public health program initiated by the previous administration.

“The Committee on Health should also be held liable. Why did they make their recommendation confidential?” Atienza stated during a press conference on Thursday.

Atienza, together with members of the House minority bloc, filed a resolution proposing a probe into reports that Dengvaxia shots may trigger serious health problems if given to persons who have yet to be infected by the dengue virus.French pharmaceutical giant, Sanofi-Pasteur admitted such findings and advised DOH about it.