Duque denies Acosta’s accusations vs DOH
Credit to Author: eestopace| Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2019 11:03:05 +0000
MANILA, Philippines — Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) Chief Persida Acosta’s claims against the Department of Health (DOH) are “baseless, malicious and a complete lie,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said on Thursday.
Duque said Acosta has claimed that the DOH paid a certain amount to families of victims of the controversial Dengvaxia vaccine to drop the charges.
“Most recently in a radio interview, Atty. Persida Acosta falsely claimed that the DOH paid at least four families with P50,000 each in exchange of dropping off charges,” Duque said in a statement.
“I strongly call on those with negative intentions to stop propagating baseless allegations. “
FEATURED STORIES📄 Sec Francisco Duque III responded to allegations from the Public Attorney’s Office. pic.twitter.com/0QsqglEvjG
— Department of Health (@officialdohgov) January 31, 2019
“This is malicious, baseless and a complete lie. Baseless statements like these cause damage to our reputation as the primary government entity mandated to protect the health of all Filipinos,” he added.
Duque explained that he addressed the issues on the Dengvaxia implementation by setting up hotlines and support groups for people’s concerns.
“Since I assumed office in November 2017, I found myself faced with the Dengvaxia crisis, a problem I inherited from my predecessors. I took immediate action to address this by stopping the dengue immunization program implementation,” he said.
“We proactively set-up priority lanes, hotlines and support groups to understand people’s concerns,” he added.
However, Duque said the attacks from PAO led to a decline in vaccine confidence and a rise in vaccine-preventable diseases.
“Unfortunately, my fellow public servants at PAO led by Atty. Persida Acosta refuses to cooperate and continue to attack and throw baseless claims and accusations at the Department of Health and myself. As a consequence, we saw a decline in vaccine confidence and a rise in cases of measles and other vaccine-preventable diseases,” the Health chief said.
Duque also lamented that the DOH staff facilitating support groups have been “bullied and harassed” due to the allegations, though they continued extending help to Filipinos.
“We actively extend our help to Filipinos from all walks of life, especially the poorest who come to the government for financial assistance. I am deeply disappointed that our efforts to provide any form of help are twisted and taken negatively,” he said.
In 2017, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stopped the dissemination of the anti-dengue fever vaccine Dengvaxia after Sanofi Pasteur admitted that immunization could be dangerous among “seronegative recipients,” or those who have not been infected with the dengue virus prior to vaccination.
READ: FDA stops sale, distribution, marketing Dengvaxia
DOH said more than 830,000 individuals, mostly children, received Dengvaxia immunization through the government’s P3-billion anti-dengue program.
During the Senate plenary debates on the DOH budget, Sen. JV Ejercito said there were no recorded confirmed cases of deaths directly caused by Dengvaxia.
“According to the DOH, no deaths are directly attributable to Dengvaxia. The cause of death is for dengue or other diseases” he said. /ee