P1.2 B to be added to dengue budget

The House of Representatives committee on appropriations is set to approve early next week the additional P1.2-billion funding for children inoculated with the dengue vaccine Dengvaxia who show symptoms of dengue infection.

“We will approve the bill in the committee level on Tuesday, when we will hold our next hearing,” Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles, committee chairman, said yesterday.

He said he has asked the Department of Health (DOH) to revise its funding proposal and to concentrate its efforts and budget on identifying who among the 900,000 schoolchildren who were vaccinated from 2016 to last year are at risk of being infected with dengue.

“We will have to focus on them. We have to make sure that they are helped when they get infected,” he said.

He added that based on the report of the World Health Organization (WHO), most of the vaccinated children “are safe from infection.”

Nograles pointed out that after approving the funding bill on Tuesday, it would be endorsed to the House for plenary approval by the last week of this month before Congress goes on its annual mandatory adjournment.

The DOH proposal includes P776 million for outpatient care for all the 900,000 children inoculated with Dengvaxia and P270 million for medical kits for the same number of children and their families.

The outpatient care package includes laboratory tests like complete blood count and urinalysis. The medical kit would contain a thermometer, two bottles of vitamins, an insect repellent and a bag that costs P10. –