Clemente Alcala Jr. is the name of a municipal doctor who saved the lives of thousands of schoolchildren in his area by openly defying the Aquino government’s orders to inoculate children with the Western-manufactured Dengvaxia.
Before Rodrigo Duterte was democratically elected president of the country, the administration of Noynoy Aquino had directed Philippine doctors to vaccinate schoolchildren with Sanofi’s dengue-fever vaccine. Aquino himself had met the company’s officials in early December 2015 and it was four weeks later that ₱3.5 billion was allotted for the purchase of Sanofi products.
Among municipal doctors from Region 3 (Central Luzon), Region 4-A (Calabarzon), Region 7 (Central Visayas) and National Capital Region (Metro Manila) convened by the regional and provincial health offices and Sanofi Industries to introduce the vaccine, Doctor Alcala was the only one who raised questions that Department of Health personnel or Sanofi failed to answer.
Doctor Alcala openly doubted that the vaccine would have a protective effect on the children under his jurisdiction. He questioned the vaccine’s efficacy for a person not yet infected by the dengue virus and one who has already contracted the dreaded disease, echoing the concerns by the world’s foremost expert on dengue, Dr. Scott Halstead.
The Filipino doctor argued that since dengue is a virus, it tends to inflict more damage on a person already vaccinated with an antibody because the antibodies will attack the blood vessels, not the virus. Alcala also questioned data presented during a dengue summit he attended before implementation of the Dengvaxia immunization program because results in the random vaccination did not reflect the target output.
“They should have isolated, for example, a hundred respondents vaccinated with Dengvaxia Stain 1, then put them in a place where they were bitten by mosquitoes with dengue virus. If they showed symptoms of dengue, only then can they be counted as concrete logistics,” he explained.
Doctor Alcala openly defied the DoH’s directive and gathered Department of Education personnel in Candelaria town to explain his position.
“I am willing to face any sanction from DoH higher-ups, rather than risk the lives of more than 4,000 elementary school students of Candelaria,” he said.
His decision was met with criticism, as locals felt they were being excluded from an expensive vaccine offered for free by the government. Between 2,000 and 3,000 students covered by his office did not avail of the vaccine.
France’s Sanofi-Pasteur has since admitted that the company’s vaccine might cause more severe symptoms if given to those who have not had dengue.
Parents of elementary school students in the Candelaria town of Quezon province have expressed gratitude to Doctor Alcala for his principled stance in the wake of media coverage of the Dengvaxia corruption scandal. A lawsuit has been filed against former President Aquino and his henchmen.
Clemente I. Alcala Jr., has been practicing internal medicine since 1993. He graduated from Quezon Provincial High School and studied medicine at Far Eastern University; his undergraduate degree is in zoology, a baccalaureate received from the University of the East. He is municipal health officer at Quezon’s Rural Health Unit.
