Dengue fever vaccine in the works may be available by 2015

Dengue fever vaccine in the works may be available by 2015

Dengue fever kills thousands of people around the world mostly in tropical regions, but a vaccine may be available within five years if researchers get the necessary funding from governments and the private sector. This was the statement made Lam Sai Kit of the University of Malaya who is the chairman of the forum Dengue v2V, which spearheads the campaign for the development of a dengue fever vaccine. The forum seeks to inform the public about the dengue outbreak and to elicit support from key policy officials in several countries where dengue is a known public health problem. Members of the forum will record dengue cases worldwide and raise funds for vaccine research.

An estimated 220 million people around the world, many of them children, are infected with dengue. A lethal form of the disease, dengue hemorrhagic fever, affects two million people yearly. Less than one percent dies from dengue, but dengue symptoms can be severe and last for weeks. Death can result if the condition is treated late. The Asia-Pacific region records the most number of dengue fever cases in the world. Health officials have noted an upward trend in the number of cases year by year. Pharmaceutical firms such as Sanofi Pasteur are leading the race to produce the first commercial dengue vaccine. Clinical trials are currently being conducted in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. These trials are scheduled to be completed in 2013. But even after trials are deemed successful it will take years before a commercial dengue fever vaccine becomes available to the wider public.

Posted by George Daniels on Saturday December 04 2010, 2:11 AM EST. Ref: Asia One. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0