First dengue vaccine as dengue spreads globally

World's first-ever dengue vaccine now approved in two countries (Philippines, Mexico). Millions of deaths could be prevented with dengue the world's fastest-growing mosquito-borne disease.

HEALTH

First dengue vaccine launched as dengue spreads around world

AFP News Agency
22-12-2015

The Philippines became the first Asian country on Tuesday to approve the sale of the world's first-ever dengue vaccine.

Dengvaxia, manufactured by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, secured its first regulatory approval in Mexico a fortnight ago and is currently being reviewed by around 20 countries in Asia and Latin America.

TWO-THIRDS OF CASES IN ASIA

It is hoped the drug could eventually help prevent millions of deaths from dengue, the world's fastest-growing mosquito-borne disease.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says as many as 400 million people are infected worldwide every year, and two-thirds are in Asia.

DIFFICULT PROBLEM FOR SCIENTISTS

Scientists have long been stumped by dengue, which has four separate strains, forcing researchers to find a drug able to fight all of them at once.

Clinical tests -- carried out on 40,000 people from 15 countries -- have found Dengvaxia can immunise two-thirds of people aged nine years and older, rising to 93 percent for the more severe form of the disease, dengue haemorrhagic fever.

It was also found to reduce the risk of hospitalisation by 80 percent.

Dengue can trigger a crippling fever, along with muscle and joint pain.

There is no known cure for dengue, and children are especially at risk.

The deadliest form of the disease kills 22,000 people a year, the WHO says.

Dengue was once considered a disease of the tropics, endemic in only nine countries, but globalisation, urbanisation, climate change and jet travel have helped it to move into more temperate non-tropical zones.

The WHO says cases of Dengue have risen 30-fold over the last 50 years, with more than half the world's population potentially at risk. The disease is now endemic in more than 100 countries.

Sanofi's research and development (R&D) work took 20 years, costing more than 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion).

Several million doses of the vaccine are ready to ship, and Sanofi expects annual production to reach 100 million doses by 2017. The vaccine could earn the company more than $1 billion annually starting in 2018 or 2019. Other pharmaceutical companies are developing dengue vaccines include the US firm Merck, Japan's Takeda and Britain's GlaxoSmithKline, but Sanofi is ahead of the competition.

BASIC FACTS ABOUT DENGUE

Following are some basic facts:

- Dengue fever is a flu-like infection, caused by the flavivirus in the same family as yellow fever.

- Dengue fever has four separate strains -- DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3 and DEN-4. Once cured, the patient is protected for life but only against the strain he was stricken by.

- Dengue is transmitted by several species of mosquito within the Aedes aegypti, which originate in Africa but which are now present in all tropical and subtropical areas.

- Dengue can trigger a crippling fever along with headache, nausea, vomiting, muscle and joint pain, and skin rashes similar to the disease measles.

- The most severe form of the disease, dengue haemorrhagic fever, accounts for one percent of cases, killing 22,000 people a year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says. It results in bleeding and blood plasma leakage. It can be fatal, in particular among children.

- The WHO says that half a million people are hospitalised by the illness every year, many of them children of which around 2.5 percent die.

- There is currently no specific treatment for dengue fever.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/asia/803136/philippines-is-first-asian-country-to-approve-dengue-vaccine

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