Indonesia rejects Sanofi dengue fever vaccine

 21-Apr-16, The Jakarta Post

As more and more countries start to adopt the first global dengue vaccine, Indonesia, one of the largest endemic regions with a population of 251 million, hopes to develop its own vaccine to be used nationwide.

Image: Break Dengue

The Health Ministry said it would not use the vaccine issued by French drug manufacturer Sanofi that is currently being distributed in the Philippines, the first to be licensed globally to combat the mosquito-borne disease for people aged between 9 and 45, because it did not match with the types of dengue commonly found in Indonesia.

“The disease is caused by four closely related viruses, dengue virus [types] 1 to 4. The ones [prevented by the Sanofi vaccine] are only viruses 1 and 2, while those types are very rare in Indonesia. The ones that are common in Indonesia are [types] 3 and 4. So if we use the vaccine, it will be a waste,” said the ministry’s director general for disease control and environmental health (P2PL ), Muhammad Subuh.

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