Heightened awareness of dengue
It turns out Dengvaxia was actually good for something, according to the Department of Health.
Because of Dengvaxia, dengue was brought into the consciousness of many people. Households are wellprepared in combating the mosquito population. More communities are participating in the antidengue drive.
These were the silver linings after the controversy broke out; awareness, preparation, and cooperation, said DOH-7 director Dr. Jaime Bernadas.
“One very good advantage of the Dengvaxia scare is that it created awareness among people on dengue… And it’s so much easier for us to campaign on the antidengue measures,” he said.
He said people are now more mindful of the dengue illness and also more wary of the ill effects if preventive measures are loosened.
He added that households and barangay personnel are responsive in dealing with the various measures and means to protect the community from the deadly disease.
In fact, Central Visayas is the only region that maintained a downward trend in the country, said Bernadas.
“Usually, every two years cases will rise and then after which cases will again go down… Surprisingly, this is the third year that we still haven’t reached our threshold. We are the only region in the Philippines that has decreased in number (of cases) from last year,” he said.
Typically, dengue cases shoot up after every two-year period, as observed by health authorities based on historical data.
But after dengue cases skyrocketed in 2016 in Central Visayas, data for the succeeding years showed that the number has continually decreased.
Recent data from the DOH-7 surveillance unit indicated that cases this year saw 12 percent lesser cases compared to last year.
Dengue cases this year in the region summed up to 10,374 cases, including 53 deaths recorded from January 1 to October 20, 2018. The same period of last year recorded a total of 11,663 cases and 102 deaths.
Bernadas said the barangay-based dengue brigades also proved to be effective and hopefully this measure will be sustained in every community.
He said households are joining efforts in cleaning their surroundings, covering stored water, and removing all possible stagnant water that are possible breeding sites of mosquitoes.
But the downside of the Dengvaxia debacle is that the long-established National Immunization Program of the agency, that protects people from vaccine preventablediseases such as measles, has been marred by the Dengvaxia issue.
Dengvaxia is the brand name of the world’s first dengue vaccine that was just introduced to the country in 2016. It went controversial when the product’s manufacturer, Sanofi Pasteur, admitted that it might pose risks to children without prior infection.
Parents and guardians mistook Dengvaxia as the other vaccines offered for free at the health centers and so adults refused to let their children receive the vaccines.
“But all the vaccines under the National Immunization Program are safe and good for our children,” Bernadas said, adding that parents should not deprive their own children of the same vaccines they received in their youth.