CLARK FREEPORT ZONE — Department of Health (DOH) has strengthened its partnership with private hospitals and facilities in order to monitor school children who were immunized with the Dengvaxia vaccine.
“Part of our strategy under the Enhanced Dengue Response Program is engaging private facilities to be part of the referral system. Currently, we have received 40 Letters of Intent from various private facilities and hospitals for them to be part of our dengue monitoring initiatives, and we hope to finalize our Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with them by the first week of February,” DOH Regional Director Leonita Gorgolon said.
Under the proposed MOA, private facilities are required to log in the name of the patients who were among those given the first dose of the vaccine, whether they are admitted or needing only observation.
“We are also looking into the possibility of downloading some amount to these private facilities as support to intensify our services to our vaccines and at the same time to ensure to the parents that services will be provided whether their children are brought in public or government facilities,” she added.
Gorgolon furthered that inasmuch as they want to utilize government hospitals for these cases, there are circumstances wherein the patient cannot be accommodated anymore in government facilities, for reasons like distance of the facility and severity of cases.
Aside from the 40 private hospitals which will become DOH-affiliated once the MOA is finalized, there are also 66 government hospitals and 281 rural health units across the region capable of testing for dengue serotype and providing treatment.
However, whether admitted in public or in private facilities, DOH reminded that proper reporting of dengue cases or any other adverse effects following immunization should be collected and forwarded to them by the hospitals.
A total of 205,085 schoolchildren were given the first dose of Dengvaxia in 2016. –Marie Joy L. Simpao
Even though only 0.2 percent or 400 children are at risk of having severe dengue in the future, DOH assures monitoring of all these children for the next five years. (CLJD/MJLS-PIA 3)