The House of Representatives on December 5, 2022 approved on third and final reading House Bill 6452 or the proposed Virology and Vaccine Institute of the Philippines Act.
The bill seeks to establish a virology and vaccine institute that will conduct thorough studies on viruses and their potential disease-causing agents that affect humans, plants and animals. The institute is meant to provide the scientific bases for the treatment of viral diseases, and for the formulation of policies to improve public health.
“We very much welcome this development because we recognize that the Covid pandemic is neither the first nor will it be the last, global health emergency,” Cong. Edgar Chatto, first district representative and one of principal authors of the bill, said.
This bill was one of urgent measures that Chatto filed in the 19th Congress. It is priority piece of legislation that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. identified in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) back in July 2022.
According to the bill, the virology and vaccine institute that will be attached to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), will focus on key science and technology applications such as research on viruses and other pathogens using a modern approach like molecular biology and its application on biotechnology and bioinformatics.
The proposed institute shall focus on development of diagnostics, vaccine development and therapeutics on viruses and other pathogens and seek International cooperation and link with a network of databases of virus infections.
Furthermore, the proposed institute shall be in charge of operation of a virology laboratory, virus gene bank and virus genome laboratory, to focus on discovering viruses circulating in the Philippines with the intent of disease prevention and craft epidemiological studies.
Moreover, the center for virology research shall operate a high-containment laboratory dedicated to the study of highly infectious and highly pathogenic viruses.
Once established, the proposed center will serve as the premier research and development institute in the field of virology, encompassing all kinds of viruses and viral diseases in plants, animals and humans. It shall also be a venue for scientists, research and other scientific and medical organizations in the Philippines.
The country was caught flatfooted in terms of virology and vaccine research when the Coronavirus disease hit the world including the Philippines.
The proposed center will soon equip the country with the right knowledge in fighting viral diseases without relying on help from abroad.
In the early days of the pandemic, swab samples were sent abroad–some to Australia–for testing as there is no adequate equipment for testing in the Philippines.
The long turnaround time for the results meant that authorities had to delay contact tracing.
It was after a few months that appropriate machines to test swab samples were made available in the country.
It took several months before more real-time polymerase chain reaction machines reached other parts of the country and made it easier to conduct Covid testing.
Chatto was one of the officials who batted for the installation of a testing machine to be placed at the Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital at the height of the pandemic.
Experts feel that the Covid pandemic will not be the last one as another pandemic may cause a widespread impact to society.
The Philippines having its own virology and vaccine institute enables it to independently or. with international partners, detect or prevent the next pandemic.
Additionally, the center can also boost the ability of the country to produce its own vaccines to benefit not just the humans but also the plants and animals as well to improve food security and biodiversity.
It will also be meant to prevent the spread of viral diseases in annuals to humans just what happened in the case of Covid where it was suspected that the disease originated from bats sold in a market in Wuhan, China.