ORGANIZED consumers and commuters yesterday called on Filipino parents to exercise caution and circumspection before believing in claims about the Dengvaxia vaccine even as it noted that many were coming from so-called “medical experts” who conducted no research about it.
In a statement sent to this paper yesterday, the Consumer-Commuter Association of the Philippines (CCAP) urged parents not to lose faith in the public vaccination program of the Department of Health.
It said that by not sending their children to public health centers, parents lose the chance of protecting their kids from diseases more lethal than dengue.
CCAP co-convenor Bencyrus Ellorin said CCAP is concerned about the decreasing numbers of Filipino parents subjecting their children to vaccination.
CCAP believes that an outbreak of other diseases such as measles is possible if parents continue to refuse appeals by health workers to subject their children to vaccination.
In January, Davao Mayor Sara Carpio declared a measles outbreak following the deaths of four children and about 200 people reported suffering from measles symptoms. A month later, or in Feb. 9, Zamboanga Mayor Ma. Isabelle Salazar declared a measles outbreak after she noted a 1,343-percent increase in measles cases involving kids in the city.
The Regional Epidemiology Surveillance Unit of DOH Region 11 has recorded 317 cases of measles outbreak only for the month of January. CCAP learned from an officer of the Davao health office that the outbreak was a direct cause of the dengvaxia scare.
“Parents are now afraid of subjecting their kids to vaccination. Our CCAP members blame these so-called ‘health experts’ who claim to have knowledge about dengue when they are actually experts in other diseases,” added Ellorin.
CCAP blamed a former World Health Organization (WHO) official who has been “pretending to be a dengvaxia expert when she recently admitted that she had no research background on dengue and on Dengvaxia vaccines.” CCAP said the physician is a tobacco and mental abuse expert who turned out to have links to an events agency that offered its services to the Department of Health when the health secretary was Dr. Paulyn Ubial.
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