Medical advancement
Scientists make dengue vaccine breakthrough
Dengue patients at Cambodia's National Paediatric hospital.
Dengue is one of the most widespread mosquito-borne viral diseases in the world, with around half of the world's population are currently at risk. While infection usually causes flu-like symptoms, it can develop into a more serious form of the disease manifested by bleeding, known as severe dengue. There is currently no vaccine to protect against dengue, and efforts to develop one have been hampered by the fact that dengue is not caused by a single virus, but rather four different related viruses (known as DENV 1, 2, 3 and 4), making development of an effective vaccine considerably more complicated than for some viral diseases. Several possible dengue vaccine candidates are currently in development, but the new results from the very recent study shows that an effective and safe dengue vaccine may be possible. Researchers based in France and Thailand tested the effectiveness of a vaccine candidate called CYD-TDV on a group of 4002 school children in Thailand, aged from four to eleven years old. The secondary tests showed that the vaccine was effective against DENV 1, 3 and 4 (in the range of 60 to 90%), with only DENV 2 appearing to be resistant to the effects of the vaccine in this trial. Furthermore, CYD-TDV appears to be safe and well-tolerated, with no vaccine-related serious adverse events being reported in the group who received it. Source: The Lancet
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