Dengue vaccination first in Metro Manila, nearby areas

Manila: Public school children in cities and municipalities in Metro Manila and surrounding areas will be the first to benefit in the government vaccination programme aimed at curbing dengue, officials said.

According to Health Secretary Dr Janette Loreto-Garin, thousands of nine-year-old public school students in Metro Manila, Central Luzon and Southern Tagalog regions would undergo dengue vaccination in the coming weeks as part of the initial implementation of a programme to arrest the disease that afflicts 220 Filipinos daily and imposes a public health burden of billions of pesos.

Loreto-Garin said the Department of Health (DOH) is targeting these regions first because based on studies, they have a high prevalence of the mosquito-borne viral disease.

“The selection of areas and age group for the implementation of the dengue vaccine in the Philippines is backed by evidence. These are selected according to: burden of disease, prevalence, and mortality rate gathered through the Philippine Integrated Disease Surveillance Registry of the DOH Epidemiology Bureau,” Loreto-Garin said.

It can be recalled that on December 22, 2015, the Philippines became the first Asian country to approve a vaccine for dengue.

Dengue is a viral disease that is transmitted through bites on humans from female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

According to the World Health Organisation, the primary symptom of dengue is a “severe, flu-like illness that affects infants, young children and adults”.

Based on the statistics gathered by DOH in 2015, the 9- to 12-year-old age bracket have the most number of cases and deaths attributed to dengue.

Earlier, a cost-effectiveness study undertaken by Professor Hiltom Lam of the Univesity of the Philippines-National Institutes for Health, showed a nationwide routine vaccination of nine-year-olds starting in 2016 would lead to an estimated 24.2 per cent reduction in dengue cases over a five-year period.

Loreto-Garin said dengue cases usually spike during the wet season that starts in June.

“As of February 20, 2016, a total of 18,790 suspect dengue cases were reported nationwide. This is 13.2 per cent higher compared to the same period last year which had a total of 16,606 cases. Most of the cases were in the Southern Tagalog or the Cavite-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal (CaLaBaR) provinces with 3,182 cases out of 18,790 (16.9 per cent); Central Luzon region with 2,596 cases (13.8 per cent) and the National Capital Region which includes Metro Manila with 1,479 cases (7.9 per cent).

Loreto-Garin added the dengue vaccine that would be administered to selected elementary public school students had been licensed by the Philippine Food and Drug Administration after more than a decade of efficacy and safety studies across ten endemic countries

The health chief added the vaccine would comprise three doses. The next two doses will be given to the same students who received the first dose in six-month intervals.

The DOH had earlier established a strict monitoring and surveillance regimen for adverse events and side effects following immunisation.

“We are fortunate to be in this era where infectious diseases can now be prevented by vaccination. However, we continuously remind everyone that cleanliness is still the key against mosquito-borne diseases like dengue.” Loreto-Garin said.