India's high burden of dengue cases may soon see some relief thanks to a new vaccine from Japanese company Takeda, The Times of India reported.
Dengue fever is transmitted through mosquito bites that cause flu-like symptoms such as a high fever, rash, vomiting, and joint, bone, or muscle pain, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Those symptoms can also become more severe during reinfection.
Thankfully, the QDENGA® dengue vaccine will be available in India by 2026. However, it's not the first-ever dengue fever vaccine to reach the market. The vaccine Dengvaxia® was approved in 2019 by the FDA but is no longer available in the United States, even in endemic areas like Puerto Rico. That same vaccine wasn't useful for those without a past dengue infection, either.
In contrast, Qdenga will have better availability to prevent outbreaks. "Our vaccine has been approved in 40 countries, and we anticipate the vaccine will be licensed in India in 2026," Derek Wallace, Takeda's global vaccine business unit president, told The Times of India.
"Given that dengue threatens half the world's population, ensuring a sufficient vaccine supply is critical," Wallace said. This vaccine isn't the only way to fight this disease, as a warming climate — an issue directly caused by human behavior — has already fostered an environment for the disease to thrive. According to the World Health Organization, rising atmospheric heat and humidity have increased outbreak numbers in recent years.
Mosquitos are increasingly spreading the disease as the overheating planet makes it easier for them to survive and reproduce more. Massive storms and flooding can produce lots of standing water where one mosquito can lay as many as 50 to 200 eggs at one time.
Poor sanitation, such as "garbage lasagnas," can give off heat or maintain standing water, providing breeding grounds for them to thrive. The Stanford Report discusses the link between mosquito-borne diseases like dengue and malaria and trash in Kenya. However, reducing landfill material and heat-trapping carbon exhaust is within human reach to solve through recycling, home/vehicle electrification, and solar conversion.
Working toward a cooler and cleaner planet also helps maintain safe vaccine storage. Disasters can shut down facilities that keep vaccines cool and make access hard for those in remote areas. Therefore, communities, stakeholders, and vaccine producers working together are essential to world health.
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