Possible dengue fever vaccine being tested in Thailand

A French multinational pharmaceutical company is testing a possible vaccine for dengue fever in Thailand.

The Paris-based Sanofi firm says it hopes the 3 dose vaccine will be ready for review in September and could be sold as soon as 2015.

An expert on dengue vaccines at Johns Hopkins Centre for Immunisation Research, Dr Anna Durbin has told Radio Australia’s Connect Asia programme it’s hoped a first generation vaccine can eventually be developed and introduced in countries where dengue is a serious problem.

“People are very excited by this, I mean work on a dengue vaccine has been ongoing for decades,” she said.

“I think this vaccine will be efficacious, we are waiting for the data from the Thai study, but I think we are going to see that it does have protective efficacy.”

4,000 children participating in trial

Sanofi says it has chosen a sample of 4,000 children to test the proposed vaccine on in Thailand.

Dr Durbin says young people in Thailand under the age of 18 are the ones mostly affected by dengue.

She says Thailand is an ideal place to be testing the vaccine.

“Thailand has, South East Asia has always had a lot of dengue, it’s generally been the region that has the highest incidence of dengue, but over the past ten years we are seeing more and more severe cases coming out of South America, particularly Brazil and it is a huge market.”

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Category: Health