THE Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) may continue the conduct of autopsies on children who had supposedly died after getting the anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia, despite calls aired by medical experts to stop the procedure and leave the matter to forensic pathologists.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II, who earlier tapped the PAO, headed by lawyer Persida Acosta, to provide legal assistance to families of supposed victims of Dengvaxia vaccines, said he sees no basis just yet to order PAO to cease the ongoing autopsies.
“I have no order for PAO to stop the autopsies,” he said in a text message on Monday.
But Aguirre added he is ready to hear the reasons of the group of doctors, led by former Health Secretary Esperanza I. Cabral, in opposing PAO’s autopsies.
“I welcome the group of Secretary Cabral to give its written position to us why the autopsies should be stopped,” the justice chief suggested.
Esperanza’s group called, Doctors for Public Welfare, earlier appealed to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to enjoin the PAO forensic team, led by Dr. Erwin Erfe, from further conducting autopsies and instead “leave the matter of determining the cause of death to competent forensic pathologists.”
The group claimed that Erfe is not a qualified forensic pathologist and was actually “wrong in practically all of the 14” cases he examined based on the results of the forensic tests conducted by pathologists in University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital.
Esperanza claimed that only one of the 14 deaths examined so far “might be causally associated with the vaccine.”
But it was revealed in the House hearing on Monday that there were three cases of death in the 14 cases that were found to be caused by severe dengue after getting Dengvaxia vaccine, subject to further tests.
The group also lamented how the reported findings of PAO in the media have been causing public panic and discouraging parents from availing their children of other immunization programs.
It can be recalled that the DOJ issued Department Order 792 last December tasking PAO to “extend free legal assistance in civil, criminal and administrative cases to all possible victims of Dengvaxia-related injuries, illnesses and deaths.”
In compliance with the DOJ’s directive, Acosta then tapped a team of PAO lawyers to gather statements and documentary evidence from parents and guardians of children who developed severe dengue after getting the Dengvaxia vaccine.
Several parents of the supposed victims of Dengvaxia have already sought assistance from PAO.
Apart from PAO, the DOJ also ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct a fact-finding probe to determine possible liabilities of officials behind the P3.5-billion project that was approved by former Health Secretary Janette L. Garin during the Aquino administration.
The controversy on Dengvaxia broke following the advisory from French-based pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur, saying new clinical analysis has found the vaccine is effective for people who have had dengue prior to immunization, but citing a risk of a “severe” case of dengue for people who have not.
As a result, 10 percent of the over 700,000 schoolchildren who received the shots are now believed to be at risk of developing severe case of the disease.
Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III immediately ordered the suspension of the dengue vaccination program pending recommendation on further action from experts from the World Health Organization.