Dengvaxia manufacturer, the first dengue vaccine, Sanofi Pasteur announced that El Salvador has secured regulatory approval for the vaccine making it the fourth country to do so in the past two months.
Dengvaxia has been approved by Mexico, the Philippines and Brazil in Dec. 2015.
The vaccine is approved for the prevention of disease caused by four dengue serotypes in individuals aged 9-45 years old living in endemic areas.
“The adoption of much-needed dengue vaccine is welcome news for our country, “said Dr. Maria Lourdes Duenas, infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital Benjamin Bloom in El Salvador.
“The burden of dengue in El Salvador has grown every year in the last decade. Access to this vaccine is essential to boost our prevention efforts dengue in the country and reduce the burden of disease ”
El Salvador reported more than 50,000 dengue fever cases in 2015, according to the Pan American Health Organization. Dengue serotype 1,2 and 3 were reported circulating in El Salvador last year.
“This latest approval of the vaccine against dengue in El Salvador shows the speed that we are moving to a preventable disease dengue vaccine in countries where the disease burden is the highest, “said Dr. Cesar Mascareñas, responsible for Global Medical Affairs Sanofi Pasteur.
“This is great news for people of El Salvador and great news for the value of this new approach to Public Health about innovative vaccine first to people living at higher risk of contracting disease, wherein the vaccine can actually have the greatest impact. ”
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