Dengue fever is endemic in the Visayas region, including Cebu.
By August 6, 11,475 people have been affected and 72 have died. The number of infected persons is 2062 in Cebu City, 1244 in Lapu-Lapu City, 621 in Mandaue City, 4430 in Cebu Province, 1759 in Bohol Island, and 1197 in Negros Oriental.
Dengue fever is a disease transmitted by a mosquito-borne virus that infects 390 million people a year, mainly in tropical regions, and kills about 20,000 people.
At present, there is no specific cure for dengue fever, and once infected and experiencing symptoms (high fever, headache, vomiting, abdominal pain, etc.), the only treatment is symptomatic treatment and waiting for the symptoms to subside. It usually takes about a week after the onset of symptoms to recover, but during this time, many people (especially children and pregnant and nursing mothers) die from hemorrhage and breathing difficulties.
Since it is caused by a virus, vaccination can prevent severe illness, and a vaccine from the French company Sanofi Pasteur was launched. However, when this vaccine was massively vaccinated in the Philippines in 2016 to people aged 2 to 16, uninfected people conversely became seriously ill and died. In response, the Philippine government stopped vaccinating the following year, at the end of 2017, and in 2019, this vaccine will be permanently banned.
According to the Nikkei Shimbun, Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda Pharmaceutical Company has developed a new dengue fever vaccine. Clinical trials have been completed and the vaccine is expected to be approved in Indonesia soon, and they are also applying for approval in Asia and Europe.
According to the article, the vaccine has no major side effects and can be used from ages 4 and up. Two doses of the vaccine are effective in preventing 61% of cases and 84% of hospitalizations due to serious illnesses.
Takeda has already built a dedicated plant in Germany at a cost of approximately 18 billion yen, and is ready to produce 50 million doses of the vaccine per year, including production on a consignment basis.
The Philippines has had a bitter experience with dengue vaccination, but I think that Takeda's vaccine with fewer side effects has a good chance of being approved.
If the vaccine is approved, I would like my children to be vaccinated as well.
