Dengue Vaccine Enters Final Phase Trial in Brazil

Dengue Vaccine Enters Final Phase Trial in Brazil
Fecha de publicación: 
27 June 2016
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Brasilia, Jun 27.- The third and last phase of a dengue vaccine created by the Batantan Institute in Sao Paulo will be implemented next week in two cities: Manaus and Boa Vista.

In this phase, which serves to test the drug's effectiveness, over 17,000 healthy people will be enrolled. They will be divided into three age groups: from 2 to 6 years, from 7 to 17 and from 18 to 59, explained the head of the biomedical research center, Jorge Kalil.

Vaccination will be held under the randomized double-blind study, which means that neither participants nor the staff involved in the research will know if the person is taking the vaccine or a placebo (a substance that has the same characteristics of the vaccine, but it is inactive).

An observation committee will know and observe, through statistics, if the candidate vaccine prevents dengue fever and at what rate. We expect the protection index to be between 80 and 90 percent, predicted Kalil.

The last phase of the trial may last over a year, but the patients will be under observation for five years to determine whether in this period they are protected against the disease and if they would need a booster dose in the future, he added.

According to Kalil, quoted by Agencia Brasil, it is estimated that the vaccine will be available for registration in 2018, which will be extremely important because over three billion people worldwide face the risk of getting infected by dengue fever, and the country reports more than three million cases every year, with a relatively-high mortality rate. (Prensa Latina)

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