Palace, DOH: Severe dengue 'not deadly'

PALACE and Health officials on Monday, December 4, allayed fears over the "severe dengue" risks that more than 700,000 children face, saying this classification by pharmaceutical firm Sanofi Pasteur is not deadly.

In a press conference held in Malacañang, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. and Health spokesperson Lyndon Lee Suy said Sanofi's classification of severe dengue differs from the Department of Health's.

"The worry is on the term 'severe dengue.' But you see, there was a reclassification of what is mild,

severe, and deadly dengue. And the `severe dengue’ that is mentioned by Sanofi will involve symptoms that include two days of fever and hemophilia, and having marks on the skin. It is not the deadly type of dengue,” Roque said.

Lee Suy, on the other hand, noted that only one out of 10, or 10 percent of over 700,000 Dengvaxia recipients, are at risk of getting infected with dengue, even after they received the vaccine.

“Meaning, the protection the vaccine should give will not really last that long. And Secretary (Roque) made mention regarding the manifestations. The severe that was being identified by Sanofi is totally different with our severe classification that is being used currently together with WHO (World Health Organization),” Lee Suy said.

“The 700,000 population of recipients of dengue vaccine are at risk of acquiring the severe dengue, aren’t they? We’re only talking about that 10 percent who did not develop dengue but received the vaccine who would be at risk,” he added.

Sanofi, manufacturer of Dengvaxia vaccine, recently reported that seronegative individuals, or those who have not had dengue fever at the time of immunization, face the risk of severe dengue after immunization with Dengvaxia.

In light of these new findings, DOH suspended on December 1 its dengue vaccination program.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque said 733,713 children from Central Luzon, Calabarzon and National Capital Region have received the first dose of Dengvaxia. It was not known how many children received the subsequent doses. Dengvaxia, the world’s first licensed dengue vaccine, is given in three doses at 0/6/12 month interval. The dengue vaccination program was launched in the Philippines in April 2016.

Lee Suy said Sanofi’s findings merely meant that the dengue vaccine does not have a long-term effect.

Duque earlier said both seronegative and seropositive individuals who were given the vaccine would enjoy a 30-month protection period.

Sanofi, in a statement released on November 29, found in its analysis that for those not previously infected by dengue, “more cases of severe disease could occur following vaccination upon a subsequent dengue infection.”

Roque, however, said the manufacturer’s findings should not be a cause for alarm.

“People should not panic about the dengue vaccine. There is no danger with the dengue vaccine,” he said.

“What Sanofi, the manufacturer, revealed is that new studies indicate that for those who already had contact with dengue --- and that’s nine out of 10 Filipinos --- the dengue vaccine is in fact very effective in protecting the patient from another attack of dengue,” he added.

Lee Suy said the Health department would conduct a series of consultative meetings with Sanofi so as to prevent such incident from happening in the future.

“We will be holding a series of consultative meetings with them just to make sure that everything is being addressed,” he said. “(The DOH) wants to be enlightened and settle the issue. We are also open to any investigation of anybody who want to really investigate about the problems on the dengue vaccine immunization program.”