A dengue fever patient is being examined by doctors at the Quang Ngai General Hospital. (Source: VNA)Dengue fever vaccine tests in the past five years in Vietnam showed real promise, according to the Preventive Medicine Department under the Ministry of Health.
The tests are part of a clinical experimental project on the effectiveness and safety of the new dengue fever vaccine CYD14 carried out by France’s Sanofi Pasteur group in collaboration with the Ho Chi Minh City Pasteur Institute in My Tho city in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang and Long Xuyen city in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang.
Vietnam is one of five countries in Asia taking part in the third stage of the experimental process with 2,336 children aged from 2 to 14 on a voluntary basis.
The test results showed the effectiveness of vaccine reached 66 percent at children aged from nine and above. The vaccine reduced 81 percent of hospitalised cases and 93 percent of severe cases.
Associate Prof. Dr. Phan Trong Lan, Head of the HCM City Pasteur Institute, said the vaccine is less effective at children aged under nine, cutting infections by 44 percent and reducing 56 percent of hospitalised cases and 67 percent of severe cases.
The tests at children aged under nine, however, needed to be watched until the end of the five-year experimental period to have a full assessment and ensure if the vaccine is safe and effective, said Lan.
Reactions after the CYD14 vaccination is equal or lower than that of existing vaccines and it did not cause any significant incident, he added.
According to the Preventive Medicine Department , based on research results, the vaccine CYD14 producer is taking steps to register for the distribution of the vaccine for children aged nine and above in participant countries of the third experimenting stage, including Vietnam.
Within the past 20 years, there have had 23 studies on the dengue fever vaccine at 17 countries all over the world from the United States, Australia to countries with dengue fever in Asia and South America.
Dengue fever is currently a global problem and the number of dengue fever cases doubles every 10 years.
Dengue fever returned to China, Malaysia, Cambodia and India after many years. In Vietnam, the disease returned in 2015 following the lowest point in 2014. Vietnam saw the worst dengue fever epidemic in 1998.
Medical experts advise people to take preventive measures like periodically cleaning water containers to remove mosquito larvae and prevent the spread of the disease.-VNA
