Concerns about the vaccine against dengue fever in the Philippines have led to a significant reduction in vaccination rates for diseases that can be prevented, officials warn.. This causes concern among representatives of the Ministry of Health regarding possible epidemics in the Philippines - a nation of about 100 million people. Deputy Health Minister Enrique Domingo said that many parents refuse to vaccinate their children against poliomyelitis, chicken pox and tetanus. Concerns are associated with the drug Dengvaxia, developed by the French company Sanofi. Sanofi and local experts claim that there is no evidence linking the death of 14 children with the drug. However, last year the company warned that the vaccine could worsen the disease in people who had not previously been infected. Dengue fever affects more than 400 million people every year around the world, and Dengvaxia is the world's first vaccine against it. According to the World Health Organization, the disease transmitted through mosquito bites is the leading cause of serious illness and death among children in some countries of Asia and Latin America. The Deputy Minister of Health of the Republic of the Philippines, Enrique Domingo (Enrique Domingo), announced a wave of fear of any vaccines among the local population. As a result, vaccination programs are not being implemented in the proper way. He also added that vaccination rates for some diseases that could be prevented in recent years have fallen to 60% - well below the national average of 85%. In 2016 - 2017 in the country were vaccinated more than 800 thousand. children, 14 of whom died. Last year, vaccination with Dengvaxia was stopped, as the Philippines began investigating the causes of death. On Saturday, February 3, Doctors for Public Welfare (DPW) said that a clinical check by forensic experts from the Philippine General Hospital determined that deaths are not related to the vaccine, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer. The French vaccine manufacturer Dengvaxia, in turn, said that experts confirmed the absence at this time of evidence directly linking the Dengvaxia vaccine with any of the 14 deaths. "In the clinical trials of Dengvaxia, which have been conducted for more than ten years, with the introduction of more than a million doses of vaccine, we have not been informed of deaths that would be directly related to the vaccine. Clinical indications confirm that vaccination against dengue in the Philippines will provide a noticeable reduction in the epidemic of ". In November last year, Sanofi announced that its vaccine could worsen a potentially fatal disease in people previously uninfected.

"Nevertheless, we have found that after vaccination, those who have not previously been infected with the dengue virus in the long-term future are at risk of more severe cases," the company said in a statement.. In its latest vaccine recommendations, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that "until a complete check is completed, WHO recommends vaccination only to people who have been infected with dengue infection in the past". Sanofi stated that Dengvaxia is registered in 19 countries and launched in 11 of them.