No anti-dengue shots via

public schools here -PHO

TAGBILARAN CITY, December 8 (PIA)--As to the Provincial Health Officer (PHO), the trials for the anti dengue vaccine did not reach Bohol, at least in the issue on public health accessed anti-dengue vaccines. 

The Department of Education (DEPED) through Superintendent Wilfreda Bongalos also assented to statement knowing that there have been no school based anti-dengue vaccines as to her information. 

According to PHO Dr, Reymoses Cabagnot, in the past two years, just as the cases of dengue alarmed medical practitioners across the globe, pharmaceutical companies raced to come up with an anti-dengue vaccine. 

They intend to come up with a vaccine effective enough to stop the spread of the virus, which has claimed countless lives especially in populated areas where mosquitoes thrive. 

This goes parallel to the efforts of government and communities to institute clean up habits to drain stagnant water which the mosquitoes used as their breeding areas and clean up area where the carriers can thrive, according to Department of Health and Department of Education authorities. 

A French pharmaceutical company; Sanofi Pasteur presented an anti-dengue vaccine called Dengvaxia, as the world's first vaccine against the dengue virus. 

By December of 2015, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the vaccine for use after the distributors obtained the license for the vaccine for people aged 9 to 45 and those living in areas where the virus have become endemic in the country.

The virus was set to be implemented in three doses, injected subcutaneously in the under-arm six months apart, DOH said. 

International trials were accordingly done in several countries with substantial cases of dengue, some of the Philippine provinces included, Dr. Cabagnot said. 

Philippine field trials in the development of the vaccines include some 30,000 kids, including Cebu and Metro Manila areas, former health secretary Janet Garin once revealed. 

But unlike Cebu which had substantial dengue cases then, Bohol was not among the trial sites of the Dengvaxia vaccines, Dr. Cabagnot assured. 

With the recent Dengvaxia controversy, Bohol PHO also emphasized that as far as the public accessed dengue vaccines, there have been no test trials done in Bohol and no public school kids have been given the vaccine via the PHO. 

Dr. Cabagnot however did not discount the fact that there might have been some private practitioners who could have implemented the anti-dengue vaccines which was available in the open markets.

In a radio interview, a private medical practitioner admitted that she has administered Dengvaxia to her patients, following the cue from the national government.

While this information unsettles the public who may have been served with their health needs by the private medical professionals, the PHO revealed that they are intending to communicate with the president of the Bohol Medical Society (BMS). 

He said the government health practitioners need information about the patients who may have been inoculated so they can properly act and help monitor these patients. 

Government medical authorities request the BMS some full cooperation and full disclosure of the patients who may have been inoculated by the virus in Bohol, Dr Cabagnot said. 

Such would allow the PHO and its managed Rural Health Units all over the province to help manage and monitor the possible cases among those who may have been injected with the Dengvaxia.

This is also for general public information especially those who may have been injected, Dr Cabagnot said. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)