Vaccine against dengue close
Monday, June 16, 2014
The first anti-dengue vaccine is expected to be licensed by major regulatory agencies from the end of next year, health experts from ASEAN countries have been told.
That should see 100 million doses a year for Southeast Asia and Latin America, the experts also heard over two days of meetings, including Saturday’s Dengue Day.
Dengue is a mosquito-borne tropical disease that causes fever, headaches, muscle and joint pains and skin rashes. It can develop into life- threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever, which kills about 25,000 people every year.
Among 2.5 billion people at risk globally, about 1.8 billion – 75 percent – are in Asia.
The dengue problem is expected to worsen in the next 12 years, though the World Health Organization has a goal of cutting mortality by half and cases by a quarter by 2020.
Fighting dengue is complicated by four variants in the virus, and the cost to mass inoculate populations will be a major issue in the next 12 months or so when Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of the pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, submits documents to regulators in the United States and Europe and regulators in dengue-endemic countries.
Source: The Standard (link opens in a new window)
- Categories
- Health Care
