Aguirre: No order for PAO to stop autopsies on suspected Dengvaxia victims

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II is not heeding the call of former Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral's group to stop the Public Attorney's Office from conducting autopsies on individuals whose deaths are feared to be linked to the Dengvaxia vaccine.

"I have no order to stop the autopsies," Aguirre said in a text message on Monday.

His statement comes after Cabral's group called on the PAO to discontinue its autopsies following the findings of a government expert panel that none of the 14 deaths it was tasked to study was directly related to the controversial vaccine.

Aguirre, however, said he welcomes the call of Cabral's group.

"But I welcome the group of Sec. Cabral to give its written position to us why the autopsies should be stopped," he said.

The Department of Health confirmed last Friday that of the 14 children who died of various causes some time after receiving Dengvaxia, only three died of dengue, but none of the deaths could directly be attributed to the now-controversial French-made vaccine.

The DOH referred to the results of an examination by a panel of experts from the University of the Philippines - Philippine General Hospital.

Following this announcement, the Doctors for Public Welfare said in a statement that "it makes no sense for any more families to be subjected to the torture of having a loved one exhumed and cut up only to find out that no useful information was derived from the cruel act."

PAO Chief Persida Acosta said in earlier report that she will only act upon the order of higher government agencies, such as the DOJ.

The PAO has recently conducted an autopsy on the 14th person---a 13-year-old boy---whose death is suspected to have been associated with Dengvaxia.

The boy's mother apparently relied on the accounts of his classmates that her child was given the vaccine because there are no school records that would show he had been vaccinated.

The boy, Mark Axl Enuña, died of typhoid, according to his death certificate, but PAO forensics chief Dr. Erwin Erfe said dengue may have only mimicked typhoid symptoms.

“Nagdugo ang utak consistent also with the other victims. May hemorrhages din sa heart wall at saka doon sa lungs, consistent with other victims," Erfe said of Mark Axl's case.

“We’re finding a strong link do’n sa vaccination dahil halos parepareho ng presentation sila,” he added.

Controversy and public alarm erupted after Dengvaxia's manufacturer, Sanofi Pasteur, disclosed in November last year that the drug may aggravate dengue upon subsequent infection among people who have not been infected with the virus prior to immunization.

DOH figures say more than 800,000 school children received the vaccine as part of the government's dengue immunization program. —ALG, GMA News