For the 70.000

Dear Kaleb, my son, years from now, you will read about Dengate, a 2017 political scandal.

But this is more than politics, Kaleb. This is personal. This is generational. This is about mothers like me who would do anything to ensure that we are not setting up our children for failure – that our children will become healthier, stronger, and wiser than us.

In 2016, an anti-dengue vaccination campaign of the Department of Health and pharmaceutical firm Sanofi was launched with a cost of 3.5 billion. 3.5 billion. I am unsure as to how 3.5 billion would look like to your generation years from now but consider this – this is the same amount reportedly needed to keep Marawi City free from the Islamic State around August this year. It is an important amount. A lifesaving amount which would have been better off in other health and nutrition programs demanding for such attention.

In highly publicized events, as our former leaders ceremonially injected children with the dengue vaccine, the act seemed meaningful and noble. Why? Dengue is a personal issue. I know of friends, relatives, and acquaintances who have excruciatingly lost children – the pain is never gone.

Health advocates were pro-active, many questioned the government’s decision for mass vaccination when studies were still being carried out at the time.

More than a year later, the Department of Health under the current administration suspended the vaccination program after Sanofi disclosed that the vaccine may cause more cases of severe disease if given to those who have not previously had the mosquito-borne illness.

733,713 children were administered with the vaccine and around 70,000 had not yet contracted dengue when they received the drug.

70,000 children.

70,000 children who will live with the possibility of more cases of severe disease in their lifetime.

Three years ago, I was policy analyst in a project addressing severe acute malnutrition. A mother from the Badjao tribe, unable to read, refused to have her child who was skin-and-bones be supplied with the Ready-to-Use-Therapeutic Food. I asked why. And she pointed out that the bright red packaging is a warning sign in their community, hence, a signal that it should not be eaten because it is unsafe. This was a mother, impoverished and illiterate, but would defend her child from anything external, foreign that may harm him.

Vaccination is an uphill campaign in most communities. Many mothers cringe upon seeing their children injected with something appearing foreign and complex.

But the 70,000 willingly allowed so. The 70,000 trusted that the government did their homework.

Would leaders have been willing to subject their own children or grandchildren to the mass immunization program that they proudly launched?

I sincerely pray this government would right a wrong.

But for the irreversible: the decision to fund an unseasoned health program instead of other programs demanding financial support and the decision to advocate for something half-baked and apply that knowledge - the questions are to what cost and for whose gain?

We look to leaders to be thorough, credible, accountable, and just.

I pray that when the leaders sat in comfortable venues to discuss this initiative, they had the Filipino children’s best interest in mind, otherwise, justice must be served.

#readmekaleb

#dengate