Brazil Approves Dengue Vaccine

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Following the Philippines and Mexico, Brazil has now approved the first dengue vaccine called Dengvaxia, the Wall Street Journal reports.

According to the news outlet, the Brazilian Health Surveillance Agency ANVISA has green lit the use of the said dengue vaccine within the country. The Brazilian government will be the one to set the price for Dengvaxia, but how soon it will be available for public use is still not confirmed.

Produced by global healthcare leader Sanofi, Dengvaxia has been tested on 29,000 patients worldwide, per Al Jazeera. Back in 2014, Bloomberg notes citing the World Health Organization (WHO), that Dengvaxia showed 60.8 percent effectiveness against the four types of dengue. Even though 60.8 percent is quite low compared to the 95 percent effectiveness rate of common vaccines, the dengue vaccine has shown high effectiveness in curing haemorrhagic fever, the most fatal type of dengue.

Outbreak News Today said that in 2015, Brazil has yielded the majority of dengue cases in the Western hemisphere at 70 percent or 1.5. million to 2.1 million infected individuals. This number dramatically increased by 50 percent compared to 2014’s 555,400 dengue cases in Brazil, per the Wall Street Journal.

Almost 390 million people around the world acquire dengue every year, 96 million of whom need treatment while 12,500 die from the said disease, per WHO. Dengue is acquired through bites of female mosquito Aedes aegypti. A dengue-stricken individual can experience high fever, skin rashes, muscle pain, vomiting, headaches, bleeding of nose and gums, which may escalate and can cause death.

"We are making dengue a preventable disease, which makes us incredibly proud,” Olivie Charmeil of Sanofi told Bloomberg.

Cameron Simmons, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Melbourne, told Al Jazeera Dengvaxia “can prevent hospitalisation for about 80 percent of those who get vaccinated."

Guillaume Leroy, Vice President of Dengue Vaccine of Sanofi, said as quoted by Outbreak News Today, “This new Approval of Dengvaxia® by the ANVISA, a well-recognized and World Health Organization (WHO) certified regulatory authority is an important milestone for Sanofi Pasteur. Dengvaxia has the potential to significantly reduce the dengue disease burden and to help Brazil reach the WHO’s 2020 dengue reduction objectives.”

Joao Bosco Siqueira Junior from the Department of Community Health, Institute of Tropical Pathology and Public Health, Federal University of Goias, refers to the approval of Dengvaxia as an "important public breakthrough" that is vital to a country with high dengue cases like Brazil.

“The 2015 dengue outbreak is still very present in the minds of Brazilians so Dengvaxia’s approval is a most welcome addition to our ongoing dengue prevention efforts," he added.