Parents of boy who died month after Dengvaxia shot file criminal raps vs. Duque, Garin

The parents of a 13-year-old boy who died over a month after being inoculated with the anti-dengue vaccine Dengvaxia have filed the sixth criminal complaint against former and incumbent officials of the Department of Health (DOH) and officers of the drug's manufacturer.

Assisted by the Public Attorney's Office (PAO), Darwin and Merlyn Bataan, parents to Jansyn Art, turned to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday to lodge a complaint of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide and of violation of the Anti-Torture Act of 2009 against 38 individuals, including DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III.

Former Health chief Janette Garin, eight "corporate directors and/or officers" of vaccine manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur, 15 from local distributor Zuellig Pharma, 11 Health officials, and two from the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine were also named as respondents.

Jansyn died on January 13. He received a dose of Dengvaxia on November 29 last year, the same day Sanofi announced, citing clinical data analysis, that "more cases of severe disease could occur following vaccination upon a subsequent dengue infection" for those not previously infected by the dengue virus.

On December 1, Duque halted the government's dengue immunization program. He was freshly re-appointed to the helm of the DOH at the time.

Duque also faces a complaint of obstruction of justice in connection with children's deaths alleged to be linked to the French-made anti-dengue vaccine.

"Bago po maturukan, malakas, walang sakit. Sa kasamaang palad siya po ay pumanaw approximate to the vaccination," PAO chief Persida Rueda-Acosta said at a press conference hours before the filing.

She said the PAO will proceed to the Quezon City Regional Trial Court after the DOJ filing to file four additional civil cases for damages in relation with the Dengvaxia mess.

"Napakasakit nun, [ang] mawalan ng anak. Secretary Duque, bakit mo po itinuloy nu'ng araw na 'yun," lamented Jansyn's father Darwin. He said he continues to fear for his daughter, who had also been immunized with Dengvaxia.

Of the 14 children whose deaths were reviewed by an expert panel from the University of the Philippines - Philippine General Hospital, only three died of dengue. Two of these may have been because of vaccine failure, the findings showed.

Another six of the 14 died of varied causes, while the vaccine had nothing to do with another three, the panel said. The remaining two cases lacked submitted information. — BM, GMA News