(Eagle News) — The Public Attorneys Office has found a link between the deaths of five children and the controversial anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia.
A newspaper report quoted Dr. Erwin Erfe, PAO forensic laboratory director, as saying that they have observed a pattern in the five children following their autopsies: They fell ill after being administered the vaccine, suffered from internal bleeding, and died six months after the vaccination.
In a statement on Wednesday, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III welcomed PAO’s probe, noting that the agency was “willing to extend any help in unveiling the truth.”
The PAO probe is apart from the investigation being conducted by the DOH, which has partnered with the Philippine General Hospital for this purpose.
The DOH has also convened an “independent panel of experts to review the latest evidence on Dengvaxia generated from the 5-year observation period in clinical trials..,” the statement said.
It added the experts would also look at the “data available to the DOH through the post-marketing surveillance of the Food and Drug Administration and the surveillance of adverse events following immunization at the DOH Epidemiology Bureau.”
“We see PAO’s efforts as complementary to our own and we would like to see the results of their probe,” Duque said.
Over 800,000 schoolchildren were vaccinated under the government’s national immunization program.
Dengvaxia was procured under then-President Benigno Aquino III’s administration.