Philippines launches world’s first mass dengue vaccination programme through public schools
The Philippines had the highest dengue incidence in the WHO’s Western Pacific region from 2013 to 2015.
The Philippines on Monday launched the first public immunisation programme for dengue fever, seeking to administer to a million schoolchildren the world’s first licensed vaccine against a mosquito-borne disease that the WHO estimates infects 390 million people a year globally.
Hundreds of fourth-graders at a public school in metropolitan Manila’s Marikina city were given the first of three shots of Dengvaxia. Some of the pupils received their vaccination shot under the glare of cameras during a festive ceremony at a gymnasium festooned with multicoloured bunting and preceded by songs and dances performed by the children.
The Philippines had the highest dengue incidence in the WHO’s Western Pacific region from 2013 to 2015, recording 200,415 cases last year, according to the Department of Health.
We are the first country to introduce, adopt and implement the first ever dengue vaccine through [the] public health system
Health Secretary Janette Garin called the programme’s launch “a historic milestone” in public health. “We are the first country to introduce, adopt and implement the first ever dengue vaccine through [the] public health system and under a public school setting,” she said.
The government is spending 3.5 billion pesos to administer the free vaccines, which it bought at a discounted cost of 3,000 pesos for three doses for each child. Free vaccine programmes ensure that “health should be for all, rich or poor,” Garin said.
The health department says a study showed that the vaccination of nine-year-old children for five years starting in 2016 can reduce dengue cases by 24.2 per cent in the Philippines. The vaccine is given as a three-dose series, with the doses coming six months apart.
Dengvaxia, developed by the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur, obtained its first licence in Mexico in December 2015 for use in individuals aged nine to 45. Regulatory agencies in Brazil, the Philippines and El Salvador followed. But the vaccine is awaiting regulatory reviews in Europe and dozens of non-European countries, as well as prequalification by the WHO.