(Eagle News)– The Public Attorneys Office should stop conducting autopsies on suspected Dengvaxia victims in light of the results of a study done by the Philippine General Hospital, the Doctors for Welfare said on Saturday.
The group–led by former Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral–said the PGH has, after all, already concluded that the deaths of the 14 children it autopsied was not linked to the anti-dengue vaccine.
“In fact, the deaths of 13 of them were totally unrelated to the vaccine,” the DPW said.
According to the group, in two of the children autopsied, “it was noted that vaccine failure may have been the case.”
“This means that no antibodies were produced so they could not have suffered from an antibody enhanced reaction,” the DPW said.
The group said this can happen when “the vaccine is not stored properly and so loses its potency.”
As such, it said “it’s although the children were never vaccinated.”
“Hence, the two most likely died of dengue not due to the vaccine,” the DPW said.
Based on the clinical study of the PGH, PAO forensic expert Dr. Erwin Erfe “is probably wrong in all” then, the group said.
It said this was “given that any actual causative relationship between the death of one child to the vaccine is yet to be determined.”
“It makes no sense for any more families to be subjected to the torture of having a loved one exhumed and cut up only to find out that no useful information was derived from the cruel act. We urge the Department of Justice to order the PAO to stop performing autopsies on these children and to leave the matter of determining the cause of death to competent forensic pathologists,” the group said.
