Dengue vaccine on trial, will be used after WHO nod

Health Minister Zahid Maleque yesterday said the recently developed dengue vaccine is still on trial and it will be used after approval from the World Health Organisation.

The dengue vaccine, developed by icddr,b and the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, requires more trials and WHO's approval for clinical application against the mosquito-borne disease, he told journalists at his home in Manikganj, reports BSS.

A trial of the vaccine was conducted for the first time in Bangladesh.

The work, evaluating the single-dose tetravalent dengue vaccine candidate TV005, demonstrated safety and immune responsiveness in children and adults, said icddr,b sources, adding that the accompanying study was recently published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.

Senior scientist at the icddr,b Rashidul Haque said, "The development of an effective and tetravalent dengue vaccine is a high priority for the large population of Bangladesh, which is now having increasingly severe dengue outbreaks."

"We are proud to participate in the evaluation of the TV005 vaccine in the Bangladeshi population and hope that our work will accelerate the development of dengue vaccines for our country."

The TV005 vaccine is the only single-dose tetravalent dengue vaccine, which is an important feature of this vaccine," said another scientist, Beth Kirkpatrick, who led the University of Vermont team, adding that it also appears to prompt immune responses to all four of the dengue serotypes.

Meanwhile, 14 more people died from dengue in 24 hours preceding 8:00am yesterday.

Of them, eight were reported in the capital.

At least 2,425 dengue patients were hospitalised in the 24-hour period, according to data from the Directorate General of Health Services.

Dengue has so far claimed 989 lives this year and 2,03,406 were infected, making this the deadliest year since the first dengue outbreak in 2000.