House panel orders DOH to prioritize vaccinated kids’ profiling

FILE: The House committee on appropriations on Wednesday, May 16, ordered the Department of Health (DOH) to prioritize the profiling of all children vaccinated with Dengvaxia, rather than using the funds for medical kits. (Photo by Leilani S. Junio via PNA)

The House Committee on Appropriations on Wednesday, May 16, ordered the Department of Health (DOH) to prioritize the profiling of all children vaccinated with Dengvaxia, rather than using the funds for medical kits.

This directive came from appropriations panel chairperson Karlo Nograles, as the panel deliberated on the proposed P1.16 billion medical assistance fund for all Dengvaxia recipients.

The DOH proposal is broken down into the following programs: medical assistance program for Dengvaxia patients (P84 million); outpatient care package (P776,250,000); deployment of nurses-health education and promotion officers (P67,807,420); proposed active case finding (project-based profiling) (P300 million); and distribution of medical kits to Dengvaxia recipients (P270 million).

The budget will come from the money returned by vaccine manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur to the Philippine government through distributor Zuellig Pharma.

Nograles, meanwhile, questioned the P270 million budget allocated for the anti-dengue kits, arguing that these are less important compared to the completion of the vaccinees’ profiling.

Medical kits contain a thermometer worth P100, a mosquito repellent worth P150, two bottles of multivitamins worth P40, and a package bag worth P10.

“Ang una kong babatikusin dito ‘yung medical kit…. Tanggalin na lang natin itong (The first thing I will criticize here is the medical kit. Let’s remove these) medical kits and let’s focus on profiling muna (first) these children para maging kampante ang mga magulang (to appease the parents). I’d scrap that medical kit,” Nograles said.

 “Kung kami sa Congress ang magsasabi (If we, in the Congress, would tell)… I think you have to recast. You have to re-prioritize this,” he added.

Parents of the vaccinated children agreed to Nograles’s remark.

“Hindi po totally matutuwa [sa medical kit]. Isa lang ‘yun sa kailangan pero hindi ‘yun ang pinaka-kailangan (We are not totally happy with the medical kits. This is only one of those necessities but this is not the most important thing),” Sumachen Dominguez, one of the mothers of the Dengvaxia recipients said.

“Hindi rin mabibili ang gamot dahil walang pera. Kailangan may medicine din na kasama hindi po sapat ‘yung vitamins lang (We cannot also buy medicines because we do not have money. Medicines should also be included as vitamins are not enough),” she added.

Nograles’s committee held the hearing, following the filing of a measure by House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, and Nograles himself on March 21, seeking to allocate a special P1.16 billion fund for children who received the controversial vaccine.

The dengue vaccination program, launched during the Aquino administration, was called off by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III last year after Sanofi issued a warning on its own vaccine, saying that it could lead to more cases of severe disease if given to an individual who has not been infected by dengue before.