Philip Stevens, a senior fellow at the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas), said the government appeared to have allowed senior officials to exercise their discretion in rejecting the vaccine instead of arriving at the decision through a transparent process.
The vaccine is known as Dengvaxia. Last September, health minister S Subramaniam said the ministry believed it could make people sick instead of protecting them. He cited studies in the United States which indicated the dangers of vaccinating those who had not yet been exposed to dengue.
However, Dengvaxia has the approval of the World Health Organisation (WHO). Stevens noted that WHO recommended its use for people above the age of nine in areas of high dengue prevalence and not to all citizens of a country.
“I can’t understand why Malaysia hasn’t approved Dengvaxia when Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines have,” Stevens told FMT.
He said the vaccine was a protection against the four dengue strains although it did not have a 100% effectiveness rate.
“Singapore has very rigorous and transparent requirements for approving drugs,” he said. “In Malaysia, the government has been poor at communicating its reasons for not approving the vaccine.”
He said the argument that the vaccine was not 100% effective was irrelevant as many vaccines in the National Immunisation Programme were not 100% effective.
He noted that the cholera vaccine had only a 30% effectiveness rate when Malaysia introduced it.
“Dengvaxia is a life-saving vaccine,” he said.
“I can understand if the government does not want to include it as part of the National Immunisation Programme because of potential costs. But the government can approve it for private use. People should be given the right to choose whether they want to take the vaccine or not.”
A total of 93,871 Malaysians contracted dengue between January and November last year. Of that number, 271 died.
Dengvaxia, produced by a French pharmaceutical company, is available in 14 countries in South America and Asia.