Philippines becomes first Asian country to approve sale of dengue vaccine Dengvaxia

Philippines became the first Asian country to approve the sale of the world’s first ever dengue vaccine Dengvaxia in the country.
The Dengvaxia vaccine has been manufactured by French pharmaceutical manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur. It has been designed to protect people in the 9-45 age groups from all four subtypes of the virus.
Key facts

• The Dengvaxia vaccine was produced as the result of an extensive clinical development programme of the French company than ran for almost two decades. Sanofi Pasteur has requested authorisation to roll out the vaccine in 20 countries.
• Earlier it secured its first regulatory approval in Mexico a fortnight ago and is currently being reviewed by around 20 countries in Asia and Latin America.
• Clinical tests of the vaccine carried out on 40,000 people from 15 countries by the company has shown that vaccine can immunise two-thirds of people aged 9-45.
• It was also found that the vaccine is capable of reducing the risk of hospitalisation of person infected by dengue virus by 80 percent.

Comment
It is hoped the vaccine could eventually help prevent millions of deaths from dengue which is considered as the world’s fastest growing mosquito borne disease mainly due to climate change. The World Health Organization (WHO) has mentioned that around 400 million people are infected worldwide every year by the dengue virus and two-thirds are in Asia.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2015