Gov’t to hire foreign experts to examine bodies of Dengvaxia victims
THE government will hire foreign experts to examine the bodies of children who allegedly died due to Dengavaxia, President Rodrigo R. Duterte said.
Presidential Spokesperson Herminio Harry L. Roque, Jr. told reporters in a press briefing on Friday that the President had a meeting last Thursday, regarding Dengvaxia with some officials including Secretary of justice (DOJ) Vitaliano N. Aguire II, Volunteer Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) chair Dante Jimenez who now serves as chairman of the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC), and Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) chief Persida R. Acosta.
“During the meeting, the President declared that those responsible should be held to account,” Mr. Roque said in Filipino. “He also ordered public hospitals to provide services to those who were injected with the vaccine and that the government will pay for their health costs.”
Owing to the lack of clinical pathologists in the country, Mr. Roque said that the President sought to get a foreign expert to undertake a study of those who died after they were injected with the Dengvaxia vaccine. — Arjay L. Balinbin