The World Health Organization announced, in a press release, the pre-qualification of a new vaccine against dengue fever.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has prequalified a new dengue vaccine… TAK-003 is the second dengue vaccine to be prequalified by WHO. It is a live attenuated vaccine, developed by Takeda, that contains attenuated forms of the four serotypes of the virus responsible for dengue fever. The World Health Organization recommends the use of TAK-003 in children aged 6 to 16 years in areas with high dengue transmission intensity.
The vaccine must be administered according to a two-dose schedule, with an interval of 3 months between doses. According to Dr. Rogerio Gaspar, Director of the Regulatory and Prequalification Department at the World Health Organization, the prequalification of TAK-003 is an important step in expanding global access to dengue vaccines, as they can now be purchased by organizations of the United Nations system, in particular UNICEF and Operations. . “With only two dengue vaccines pre-qualified so far, we look forward to other vaccine manufacturers submitting new vaccines for us to evaluate, so we can ensure all communities who need them have access to vaccines,” he continued.
Note that the WHO prequalification list also includes the CYD-TDV dengue vaccine developed by Sanofi Pasteur. Dengue fever is a disease transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito. Severe dengue is a life-threatening complication that can develop as a result of infection with the dengue virus. “There are an estimated more than 100 to 400 million cases of dengue worldwide each year, and 3.8 billion people live in countries where the disease is endemic, most of them in Asia, Africa and the Americas.
2023 saw the highest number of dengue cases ever reported, with the WHO Region of the Americas reporting 4.5 million cases and 2,300 deaths. It is very likely that dengue cases will increase and expand geographically due to climate change and urbanization.
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