Dengvaxia

1. Goals in relation to the company's Mission Statement

The Mission of the Department of Health after the Dengvaxia Controversy that led to several
deaths of students that received Dengvaxia vaccine the goal was to recuperate to the tragic
campaign against dengue cases in our country. To prove and gain the trust of the parents to have
their kids vaccinated under the health programs of the government.

2. Situational Analysis

The Dengvaxia vaccine was introduced to our country in hope that it would help decrease the
rate of dengue cases here in our country, which led to deaths of student that had the vaccine
because of the rush in production and lack some of clinical test before selling it to our country.
This created a panic and distrust of the parents to the health programs allotted for the children
here in our country, it also started a disbelief of effectiveness of a vaccine because of the failure
of Dengvaxia. In the year 2016, The Philippines is in the midst of a national epidemic of dengue
fever, a mosquito-borne tropical disease that causes flu-like symptoms and can be life-
threatening, particularly to children if it develops into the more severe form of the disease. The
country has attributed at least 622 deaths to the disease this year, a 98% year-on-year increase,
prompting authorities to declare a national epidemic in August (Lo, 2019).

3. Threats and Opportunities to reaching goals

The threat of the downfall of the Dengvaxia program of the Department of Health is the panic
that is created for the parents of the children involved, and they started to lose faith in other
government health programs and may harm other vital vaccination programs of the DOH. The
opportunity out of the failed PR is to reevaluate a vaccine before buying it and to always check
its effectiveness and how many phases of trials it undergoes before they sell it to other countries.
To promote health campaign and gain trust from the people by showing them the importance of
vaccine and letting them know all the facts about the vaccine before introducing it.
4. Target Audience/Public

The target audience of this campaign is the parents who let their child participate in the
Dengvaxia vaccine and those parents who lost their child due to the vaccine in order for the
Department of Health gain back their trust and to continue to offer a healthcare to the citizens of
our country and offer them vital vaccinations that we need in order to have an extra protection
against viruses and other illness.

The general public is also a target audience for it created a panic and distrust against vaccine that
some people doesn’t believe that it is effective like getting vaccinated to avoid a severe case of
COVID-19 just like what we are experiencing right now because people have seen these kinds of
results that it caused death and to correct and change their mindset regarding vaccines.

5. Campaign Theme/ Message

The campaign theme or message of DOH regarding Dengvaxia is to deal with the complaints and
concern regarding the vaccination and deaths of some student who received the vaccine and to
slowly gain the trust of the public by attending to those students who got vaccinated and to be
held responsible for the failure of the Dengvaxia program.

6. Objectives of the Plan or Campaign

A. In response to the Dengvaxia scandal, the DOH has ramped up its public relations approach
which is to execute a crisis management strategy.

B. DOH to rebrand its entire image that the Department of Health is the Filipino's family
physician and recover the trust and confidence of the general public.

C. Right after the controversy, the department was down to a 60% approval rating but according
to pollster Pulse Asia, DOH ended the year 2018 with approval ratings of 79 percent, tied with
the DepEd and the DSWD, however Health Undersecretary Enrique Domingo said that their
objective is to increase the approval ratings of the department from 79% into 90% (Tomacruz,
2018).
7.  Strategies used to Accomplish the Campaign Plan

A. The Department of Health has established a task force to deal with complaints and concerns
about the Dengvaxia vaccine. The task force will include a legal team that will conduct an in-
depth investigation of the crisis of the campaign (Crisostomo, 2017).

B. Examine the health of all children who were vaccinated with the Dengvaxia vaccine.

C. The Department of Health has collaborated with hospital associations in response to the
Dengvaxia controversy.

D. Disseminate communication plans to reassure parents about their children's safety and the
protection of barangay healthcare officials who dispensed the vaccinations to children in their
community.

E. Minimize the risks to DOH’s other health programs.

8.  Tactics used in implementing the strategies.

A. In December 2017, the Philippine government responded to the crisis by suspending the anti-
dengue immunization program indefinitely.

B. Dengvaxia's marketing, sale, and distribution were all halted by the FDA on December 4,
2017.

C. The Department of Health sent thirty more surveillance officers to various hospitals in the
four areas where the vaccination program was carried out (Mendoza R., Valenzuela S., Dayrit
M., 2020).

D. DOH formed a task force to address issues and monitor the nearly 800,000 youngsters who
have received the Dengvaxia vaccine. The Department of Health has previously stated that it will
perform "heightened surveillance" of children's health for a five-year period (TomaCruz, 2018).

D. DOH commissioned an independent panel of experts from the University of the Philippines -
Philippine General Hospital to look into fourteen deaths connected to the vaccination on
December 21, 2017. The panel's findings, which were announced on February 2, 2018, revealed
that eleven deaths were unrelated to Dengvaxia, while just three instances were vaccine-related,
two of which were due to vaccination failure (Mendoza R., Valenzuela S., Dayrit M., 2020).

E. Duque authorized the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation to cover hospital costs of
P10,000 to P16,000 per child If a kid is hospitalized because of mild or severe dengue fever
(TomaCruz, 2018).

F. Dengue fast lanes were installed in private and public hospitals by the Department of Health
in collaboration with hospital groups (TomaCruz, 2018).

G. The Department of Health conducted media forums regarding the aftermath of the Dengvaxia
controversy and future plans of the department.

H. Implementation of the universal health care bill to ensure that all Filipinos have access to a
comprehensive range of health services

9.  Budget used if there are any

When the Dengue school-based immunization program was implemented during the Aquino
administration, the program was funded with a Php 3.5 billion budget in three high-dengue-
intensity regions in the country: Region IV-A, Region III, and NCR, (Mendoza, Ronald &
Valenzuela, Sheena & Dayrit, Manuel, 2020).

However, in the aftermath of the Dengvaxia controversy, the Senate overwhelmingly passed a
bill in 2018m providing a PHP1.161 billion supplementary budget to cover the medical costs of
children who received the Dengvaxia vaccination. The additional funds would come from a
partial return from Sanofi Pasteur, the French pharmaceutical company, through its local
distributor Zuellig Pharma, for unused Dengvaxia vaccination vials. The Department of Health
has recommended allocating 81 percent of the budget, or PHP945.8 million, to a medical aid
program for vaccination beneficiaries seeking treatment, whether in hospitals or as outpatients.
PHP148.3 million will be spent on public health management, with PHP78 million set aside for
vaccination recipient assessment and monitoring and PHP70 million set aside for medications
and supplies. While around PHP67.6 million would be spent on the deployment of health
personnel to follow up on Dengvaxia users' concerns (Reganit, 2018).

10. Timetable
Source: Mendoza R., Valenzuela S., Dayrit M. (2020).
 References

Cepeda, M., & Cepeda, K. (2018, January 31). “Panic” over Dengvaxia harms other vital
vaccination programs, health experts say. Rappler.
https://www.rappler.com/nation/experts-alarmed-panic-dengvaxia-hurts-other-
vaccination-programs
Crisostomo, S. (2017, December 8). DOH forms task force on DENGVAXIA dengue vaccine.
Philstar.com. Retrieved September 30, 2021, from
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2017/12/08/1766647/doh-forms-task-force-
dengvaxia-dengue-vaccine

Lo, C. (2019, December 16). The dengue vaccine dilemma. Pharmaceutical Technology.
https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/features/dangvaxia-philippines/

Mendoza R., Valenzuela S., Dayrit M. (2020). A Crisis of Confidence: The Case of Dengvaxia
in the Philippines. SSRN Electronic Journal. 10.2139/ssrn.3519736

NPR Cookie Consent and Choices. (2019, May 3). NPR. https://choice.npr.org/index.html?
origin=https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/05/03/719037789/botched-
vaccine-launch-has-deadly-repercussions

Reganit, J. C. (2018, September 5). Senate approves P1.16-B Supplemental Budget for
dengvaxia recipients. Philippine News Agency. Retrieved October 28, 2021, from
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1047097#:~:text=161%2Dbillion%20supplemental
%20budget%20to,of%20the%20bill%20last%20May.

Tomacruz, S. (2018, December 2). Post Dengvaxia controversy: Paving the way forward for
vaccines, health care. Rappler. Retrieved October 28, 2021, from
https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/in-depth/dengvaxia-one-year-after-outbreaks-series-
part-2.