House OKs P1.16-B budget for Dengvaxia recipients

The House of Representatives on Tuesday approved on third and final reading the bill seeking to appropriate a P1.16-billion supplemental budget aimed to assist children who were given the controversial Dengvaxia vaccine.

Voting 231-0, the chamber approved House Bill 7449, which seeks to appropriate a total of P1,161,710,000 as supplemental appropriation to the 2018 national budget to provide the necessary heath and medical assistance to Dengvaxia vaccinees.

The approval of the measure came after President Rodrigo Duterte earlier certified the bill as urgent.

LOOK: President Duterte has certified as urgent the bill appropriating P1.16 billion supplemental budget to aid Dengvaxia vaccinees. @gmanews pic.twitter.com/MDOn7qFbFr

— Erwin Colcol (@erwincolcol) May 29, 2018

The budget would come from the partial refund from unused vials returned by French pharmaceutical company and Dengvaxia manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur to the government through its local distributor Zuellig Pharma.

The fund is expected to cover all illnesses that the Dengvaxia vaccinees could have, ranging from "mild" to "catastrophic."

The Department of Health has proposed that 81 percent or P945 million of this amount would be allocated for the medical assistance program or health assistance fund for Dengvaxia vaccinees, which covers patients admitted in hospitals and outpatients.

On the other hand, 13 percent of the budget or P148 million would be spent for public health management.

The budget includes the cost of assessment and monitoring of vaccine recipients, which is pegged at P78 million and at P70 million for supplies and medicines.

Six percent of the budget or P67 million, meanwhile, will be allocated for human resource for health deployment.

The supplemental budget may be used until it is fully spent, regardless if the amount is used beyond the current fiscal year. — BAP, GMA News