Mexico on fast track for dengue vaccine

Source: Getty Images
Source: Getty Images

With rainy season comes mosquitoes, and with that, worries about what a simple bite could lead to. For people living in Mexico, some hopeful news is in sight.

Mexico could be the first country to market a new dengue vaccine which in clinical trials reduced cases of the mosquito-borne disease by 60.8 percent.

French drug maker Sanofi has invested more than $1.7 billion US on the two-decade-long project to combat the world’s fastest-growing tropical disease.

The study was conducted on 20,875 children across Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Honduras and Puerto Rico. Sanofi will unveil detailed findings at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene’s in November.

The head of Mexico’s commission on health risks said the vaccine will be approved in the first half of 2015, which would make the country the first to have it available. Columbia and Brazil are the other countries set to offer citizens access to the drug.

Most patients survive dengue, but it kills an estimated 20,000 people each year. In Yucatan,of 2,758 cases of the illness, seven fatal were reported in 2013, according to the Mexico Gulf Reporter.

Additional sources: Reuters, Sipse

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