Sanofi Pasteur has announced that the dengue vaccine trial among 5 countries and more than 20,000 patients in Latin America had decreased the incidence of the disease to 60.8%. It also brought down hospitalizations to over 80%.d
This isn't the first trial for the vaccine since it was tested in Southeast Asia around 2012, where it produced disappointing results. Participants were given 3 doses of the vaccine. While the overall incidence of the disease decreased to almost 90%, it only had a success rate of 35% for dengue stereotype 2, which was the most common in the region. The Latin study, meanwhile, created a much higher reduction of incidence for stereotype 2 at 42.3%.
In a statement released by Sanofi through its chief executive officer Olivier Charmeil, they believed that after 20 years, dengue will now become more preventable through the vaccine. The company hopes that they can make it commercially viable by 2015.
Some, nevertheless, had expressed concerns about the vaccine. The Dengue Vaccine Initiative adviser Dr. Scott Halstead expressed slight disappointment over the results, though he thinks the vaccine may be effective in severe cases.
Dengue fever is one of the oldest mosquito-borne diseases since it first occurred around 100 to 800 years before. A patient can develop it from any of the four virus strains. The symptoms normally appear as early as the third day and as long as 2 weeks after the bite. Some of the common signs of dengue are joint pains, skin rashes, lethargy, and high-grade fever. A person's platelet count also rapidly drops. If it goes down below the minimum, the patient may have to undergo blood transfusion.
Dengue is more common among young children. All around the world, over 2 billion people are at risk, and many of them are living in Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Africa. It is responsible for more than 20,000 deaths, most of them children.
Once the Sanofi vaccine becomes commercial, it will be the first dengue vaccine in history. Currently, the options are mainly symptom management and immunity boosting, in the hopes the body can get rid of the virus before it destroys the major organs.