Fears over a dengue vaccine in the Philippines have led to a big drop in immunization rates for other preventable diseases, according to officials. Health Under-Secretary Enrique Domingo said many parents were refusing to get their children vaccinated for polio, chicken pox and tetanus.
The fears center on Dengvaxia, a drug developed by French company Sanofi. Sanofi and local experts say there is no evidence linking the deaths of 14 children to the drug. However, the company had warned last year that the vaccine could make the disease worse in some people not infected before.
Dengue fever affects more than 400 million people each year around the world, and is a leading cause of serious illness and death among children in many Asian and Latin American countries. Dengvaxia is the world's first vaccine against dengue.
"Our programs are suffering... (people) are scared of all vaccines now", Secretary Domingo warned. He added that vaccination rates for some preventable diseases had dropped as much as 60% in recent years - significantly lower that the nationwide target of 85%.
Vaccination campaigns have been the source of much controversy across the world, beginning with a 1998 paper (later widely-discredited) falsely linking the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to autism. This led to a drop in immunization rates in the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland.
"Anti-vax" movement: activities in the past few years by fringe campaigners against immunization - particularly for measles - lead to falling immunization rates in France, Italy and the U.S.
Islamist militants in Pakistan have carried out attacks against workers vaccinating children in recent years. The militants say immunization is a Western campaign to sterilize Pakistani children.
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