Also in the Philippines, a number of parents are demanding justice for children vaccinated against dengue fever after it was discovered the new drug could cause the mosquito-borne disease to be more severe for those who've never been infected. The uproar has caused panic and the panic may be giving rise to bigger problems, with some parents refusing to have their children vaccinated against any disease. CGTN's Barnaby Lo has the story.

Rachel Alarcon had always availed of the government's immunization programs for her children. Why not, she says, they're free. But that has not been the case for her youngest, who's just five months old.

RACHEL ALARCON MOTHER "I do trust our local health workers but Dengvaxia has me worried. My baby's healthy. I'm scared vaccines could cause problems."

Dengvaxia is the world's first dengue vaccine. In 2016, the Philippine government launched a dengue immunization program that to date, has covered more than 800,000 schoolchildren. But late last year, Dengvaxia's manufacturer, Sanofi, warned that the vaccine could trigger severe illness among those who've never been exposed to the mosquito-borne virus.

It's caused fear and panic, but the health department says only three deaths so far can be linked to Dengvaxia.

DR. ENRIQUE DOMINGO UNDERSECRETARY, PHILIPPINE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH "What we have now is a causal association, meaning it seems to be connected by the time frame, by the disease process, and what happened to the patient. However, to establish that actual cause we need to some more tests."

The health department says the coverage rate even for something as benign as deworming has dropped more than 50 percent. In one of the regions covered by the dengue vaccination program, close to a third of the usual number of children getting routine vaccines are not receiving them. A measles outbreak in President Rodrigo Duterte's hometown of Davao, the health department says, could also be partially attributed to the scare.

DR. ENRIQUE DOMINGO UNDERSECRETARY, PHILIPPINE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH "We just ask everybody to please not confuse Dengvaxia with the other immunization programs – programs for polio, measles, rubella, mumps. These are diseases that are ancient and we should not be seeing again."

Diseases Rachel could already be protecting her child from, had she not let the hysteria over Dengvaxia affect her. After all, a five-month old is years away from being eligible for the dengue vaccine. Barnaby Lo, CGTN, Manila