Vaccine for Dengue fever by 2015

BANGKOK: A vaccine for dengue fever could be a reality by 2015 - bringing relief to countries like Thailand where the disease strikes millions each year.

For the estimated 220 million people infected annually, dengue fever starts with only a small mosquito bite.

Two million children a year develop a potentially deadly form of the disease.

More than 70 per cent of the world's population at risk for dengue fever live in ASEAN countries, and the month of June is peak dengue season.

Dengue has become an epidemic due to unprecedented population growth, lack of effective mosquito control, and unchecked urbanization.

Health consequences aside, families are often faced with the economic burden of treatment.

In Thailand's Ratchaburi province which has some of the highest incidences of dengue in the Kingdom, Sanofi Pasteur and Mahidol University are spearheading the world's first efficacy trial for a dengue vaccine.

So far, there is reason for hope.

"Its really quite exciting working on the challenging vaccine, but also thinking that at the end, the deliverable for us, the team at Sanofi Pasteur, will be the vaccine that will help the children and the parents for the 200 million plus that had dengue last year," said Dr Jean Lang, the Sanofi Pasteur Dengue Vaccine Program head.

4,000 children are participating in the four-year study.

They'll each receive three injections spaced six months apart.

Results of the trial are expected by 2012.

If its approved, Singapore could well be one of the first countries to take advantage.

"The Singapore government has maintained the mosquito control, but at the same time the population has become more susceptible, so as you have higher susceptibility, it takes fewer mosquitos to transmit epidemics," said Professor Duane J Gubler, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore.

Air travel has also made the city state susceptible to dengue outbreaks.

"Singapore lives in a sea of dengue. All of the countries around Singapore (such as) Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines all have massive epidemics of dengue and dengue hemorrhagic fever," said Professor Gubler.

A vaccine for dengue fever could be available by 2015.

SOURCE:
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