The Visayas Primary Healthcare Services, Inc. (VPHCS) organized several forums in urban poor areas with its community health workers to discuss about the Dengvaxia fiasco.
To recall, more than 830,000 children were vaccinated with the vaccine in four regions in the country, including 152,000 in Cebu Province. A total of 63 vaccinated children have died as of July 1, 2018. The Congress is conducting investigation on the government officials who are responsible for the purchase of the vaccines and launching the nationwide immunization program. Several officials have already been charged.
The Department of Health has also launched a nationwide information drive and instituted measures to address the effects and concerns related with the Dengvaxia issue. Various groups and families of the victims have also called for accountability from government officials responsible for the fiasco and from the Sanofi- Pasteur drug company.
The series of forums in the communities were held in order to understand more deeply about what really happened, how it all started, why the previous Aquino government purchased the vaccines at the huge cost of P 3.5 billion when the efficacy was already questioned, what parents can do for their children who were vaccinated and may become sick, and other measures that must be done
The areas that the forums were conducted included Barangay Catarman in Cordova, Barangay Ermita in Cebu City, Barangay San Roque, Talisay City, Barangay Umapad, Mandaue City, among others. These are areas where the VPHCS has trained community health workers who organized the activity.
