PAO sues ex-DOH execs, drug firms over alleged Dengvaxia death

The Public Attorney's Office (PAO) on Monday filed a P4.2 million civil suit against former Health Department officials, including ex-Health Secretary Janette Garin, and pharmaceuticals Zuellig Pharma Corp and Sanofi Pasteur.

In its suit, the PAO claimed that the respondents were responsible for the the death of 10-year-old Anjielica Pestilos, who was given the controversial anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia.

"Meron po tayong physical evidence, hindi records lang," explained PAO chief Atty. Persida Rueda-Acosta told GMA 7 news program "24 Oras". "Dahila ang UP-PGH puro records lang ang kanilang inaral. Pero ang PAO, forensic analysis po ay kumpleto."

PAO forensic expert Erwin Erfe explained during  a news conference that "so much bleeding from [Pestilos'] lungs, her liver, her heart, her stomach were from viscerotropic-like disease which was caused by the injection of Dengvaxia."

The PAO also claimed that these conditions were also found in 14 other bodies they had examined.

However, Sanofi said it knew of no deaths resulting from the vaccine.

"In Dengvaxia clinical trials conducted over more than a decade and over one million doses of the vaccine administered, no deaths causally related to the vaccine have been reported to us," it said in a statement.

Sanofi also rejected a Department of Health (DOH) request to refund the government for used doses of the vaccine, which it said would "imply that the vaccine is ineffective, which is not the case".

Health Secretary Francisco Duque said the Dengvaxia controversy had "tainted the credibility" of the country's immunization program.

Two non-government organizations filed an administrative complaint with the Office of the President on Monday calling for 13 health ministry officials involved in the anti-dengue program to be dismissed.

The DOH suspended its dengue immunization program following a Sanofi advisory late in November that said the vaccine itself may, in some cases, increase the risk of severe dengue in recipients not previously infected by the virus.

On Friday, a panel of experts tasked by the DOH to determine if the drug was directly connected to the deaths of 14 recipients of the vaccine found it may have been connected to three deaths. It concluded Dengvaxia was not ready for mass immunization.

Mosquito-borne dengue is the world's fastest-growing infectious disease, afflicting up to 100 million people worldwide, causing half a million life-threatening infections and killing about 20,000 people, mostly children, each year. — with a report from Reuters/DVM, GMA News