“I have asked our district health office to get in touch with the doctors of the two students who have been absent from their classes for about two weeks and reported later that their doctors confi rmed their ailment as dengue,” Garbo told Punto!.
Nine Grade 6 students were taken ill simultaneously at the Lakandula Elementary School here.
All of them have recovered and reported to their classes this week, but two said their doctors informed them they had suffered from dengue.
The two were identified by a school official as Cirila Tagle and Kris- tine Regala.
Their teacher said they had been absent from classes for about two weeks.
The two students could not be immediately contacted yesterday for the identities of their physicians.
Garbo congratulated the teachers at the school for their transparency about the cases, as he pointed out the need for the Department of Health to “have a clearer picture of the situation and adopt a corresponding response.”
“I am asking teachers of students who were given Dengvaxia vaccines to be transparent. To hide any relevant information on the Dengvaxia controversy would be criminal as it effects the health, if not the lives of innocent children,” he said.
In a press conference at Clark freeport recently, Department of Health (DOH) Assistant Sec. Leonita Gorgolon said there is yet no data on whether more shots of the anti-dengue vaccine would increase the risk of “severe” dengue among children who had no history of dengue.
The government halted its anti-dengue vaccination program after vaccine manufacturer Sanofi said that those without history of dengue risk being affl icted with severe dengue after vaccination, and that the vaccine is suitable only for those who had already been affl icted with dengue before.
