Rising dengue cases: Is it time for Dengvaxia's return?

An infectious disease expert recently brought up the idea of lifting the suspension of the Dengvaxia vaccine amid rising number of dengue cases in the country, a move that the Department of Health (DOH) is open to.

Dr. Rontgene Solante noted during a recent Laging Handa public briefing that the Philippines, a country where dengue cases are really very high, has no vaccine like Dengvaxia which has been licensed with other countries such as Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

"So, I think, it’s high time that, if in case, the government should consider having Dengvaxia, they should review the data, should review the benefit of this vaccine, which is the prevention of hospitalization and prevention of severe Dengue," he added.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire disclosed in a press briefing on Tuesday, July 12 that 15 out of 17 Regions (Regions II, III, CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, BARMM, CAR, NCR) exceeded the alert/epidemic threshold of dengue cases for the past four weeks from May 29 to June 25.

She explained that if an area exceeds the it means that the number of cases in that particular area is more than what has been expected. Vergeire added that this is because DOH compares the trends or the number of cases from the previous year's cases at that same period.

The health official stated that this is worrisome because they are seeing an increase in dengue cases in the regions all at the same time. It is worrisome, she mentioned, because this is on top of Covid-19 cases also increasing.

In relation to Dengvaxia, she said that the government together with DOH is always open to new technologies especially if it will provide evidence that it can really protect the population. 

"Ang kailangan lang po mapag-aralang mabuti ulit, masusi ang pag-aaral, makakuha ng inputs coming from our experts, and of course kailangan itong manufacturer ay maging compliant dun sa mga regulasyon dito sa ating bansa (What we need is study it thoroughly, to get inputs from the experts, and of course the manufacturer should be compliant with the country's regulations)," she explained.

"So for us to bring back this kind of vaccine, kailangan completed na po ang evidence natin (the evidence has to be complete). Marami po tayong proseso't pag-aaral na kailangan isagawa para magawa po natin lahat ito (We have a lot of processes and studies needed to conduct to enable this)," she added.

Vergeire shared that the Certificate of Product Registration (CPR) of Dengvaxia was revoked in 2018; a move that was supported by DOH due to the lack of evidence that Dengvaxia provided.

Given that no vaccine against dengue is available, she stressed that the public should focus on other preventive measures to curb the spread of dengue such as maintaining cleanliness in the surroundings by removing breeding grounds of mosquitoes, specifically stagnant water.