The dengue vaccine Dengvaxia, manufactured by Sanofi, has been approved by Mexico for prevention of the deadly mosquito-borne disease. This approval makes it the first vaccine in the world to prevent dengue, thereby bringing fruit to the 20-year effort of the drug company to produce the vaccine. It marks a major advance in medicine, with dengue joining the list of vaccine-preventable diseases.
Dengue has assumed endemic proportions in several parts of the world, claiming a huge number of lives every year. It is no longer limited to the tropics, but has spread far and wide to other regions as well. The virus that causes dengue spreads through the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito. The fever results in symptoms of severe joint and muscle pains. Several patients succumb to complications like shock or dengue hemorrhagic fever. With no definite antiviral treatment available against the virus as yet, a vaccine currently seems to offer the best option to deal with the infection. The Dengvaxia vaccine has been approved by Mexico's Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risk for the prevention of dengue for people ranging from 9 to 45 years.
Since a vaccine is administered to people who are healthy, it is important that besides being effective, it should not cause any side effects. The vaccine has been found to be safe in large clinical trials prior to its approval. It provides protection against all 4 variants of the dengue virus. Though it has not found to be 100% effective, it will hopefully reduce the number of affected people and thereby the transmission of the infection.
The approval for the dengue vaccine in Mexico will hopefully be a major boost to the global efforts involved in the prevention of dengue.
News Desk
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