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Brazil.- The National Health Surveillance Agency of Brazil (Anvisa) approved the registration of the quadrivalent dengue vaccinemade by the Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda.
The “Qdenga” vaccine is made from “four different serotypes of the virus that causes the disease, which is why it provides broad protection,” Anvisa, Brazil’s highest health authority, said in a note.
In 2022, Brazil reported more than a thousand deaths associated with dengue for the first time in a year, currently in the midst of a worrying increase in cases and deaths from the disease.
Credits: Canva
With a general efficacy of 80.2%, the formula, which consists of two doses, which must be applied with an interval of three months, is recommended for a wide audience: from over 4 years to adults over 60.
“The demonstration of the efficacy of the Qdenga vaccine is mainly supported by the results of a large-scale, phase 3 study”, “placebo-controlled and conducted in dengue-endemic countries, with the aim of evaluating efficacy and safety” of it, explained Anvisa.
The Brazilian body also recalled that Takeda’s vaccine has already received a favorable opinion from the committee for medicines for human use of the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
It should be noted that Brazil had previously approved another vaccine against dengue (“Dengvaxia”), but this can only be used by those who have already been infected with the virus transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
The South American country registered at least 1,016 deaths from dengue in 2022, four times more than in 2021 (244) and the highest level in its history, according to data from the Ministry of Health. The number of infections jumped last year from 544,000 in 2021 to 1,450,270 in 2022.
Therefore, the Brazilian Government warned last January that cases would continue to rise in these first months of 2023, a period that coincides with the southern summer, in which the rains facilitate the spread of mosquito breeding sites. EFE
