Rush To Produce, Sell Vaccine Put Kids In Philippines At Risk

NPR ^ | May 3, 2019 | Michaeleen Doucleff

[CheshireTheCat]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration just approved one of the most sought after vaccines in recent decades. It's the world's first vaccine to prevent dengue fever — a disease so painful that its nickname is "breakbone fever."

The vaccine, called Dengvaxia, is aimed at helping children in Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories where dengue is a problem.

But this vaccine has a dark — and deadly — history. One that has led to criminal charges in the Philippines, sparked national panic and fueled a massive measles outbreak that has already killed more than 355 people.

The concern

That story begins on a stage in Manila in 2016.

A young girl, about age 9 or 10, sat on a chair surrounded by health officials. She wore a bright yellow T-shirt with the words "Dengue is dangerous" across it. She squeezed her eyes and bit her lip as the health secretary of the Philippines, Dr. Janette Garin, gave her a shot in the arm.

That shot launched a massive vaccine campaign to inoculate nearly 1 million schoolchildren with Dengvaxia. The goal was to save thousands of kids' lives and prevent an estimated 10,000 hospitalizations over a five-year period.

But in the end, estimates are that more than 100,000 Philippine children received a vaccine that health officials say increased their risk of a severe and sometimes deadly condition.....

[CheshireTheCat]

I'm sure they learned their lesson.

[WoofDog123]

wasn’t the dengue vaccine problem a form of ADE?

[plain talk]

Incredible. Rush is dead and yet he is still going to produce and sell vaccine in the Phillipines. Cool.

[Truthoverpower]

The vaccine industry is pure evil and fraudulent

Never ever doubt that for a second

[CondoleezzaProtege]

That’s what I thought from the headline too.

[blueplum]

What the article said was the dengue virus is wonky. A first dengue infection makes one ADE to a second dengue infection, and in rare cases it results in plasma leakage syndrome

for those never infected, ie. “dengue NS1 IgG antibodies were absent in sera,” the vaccine antibodies acted like a first infection. For breakthrough vaccinated, a subsequent infection was like a second infection.

10 confirmed deaths, 600 were under investigation says the story. Of the 900K vaccinated, approx 100K had prior dengue exposure. They didn’t say what the followup was.