Dengue vaccine : Sanofi Pasteur will reimburse the doses unused in Manila

alexraths/epictura

Published the 16.01.2018 at 09h09
Update the 16.01.2018 at 12: 27 pm

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Sanofi Pasteur will reimburse the government of the philippines the doses of unused vaccine against dengue fever. Manila has suspended the vaccination campaign due to concerns relating to the death d e 14enfants in vaccination.
Sanofi Pasteur has pointed out that this refund had nothing to do with safety issues of the vaccine and aimed to improve its relations with the philippine department of Health, which is investigating the deaths of these children in the suites of vaccination with the Dengvaxia.

Dengue or influenza tropical

Dengue fever, also called ” the flu, tropical “, is a hemorrhagic fever tropical linked to an arbovirus, transmitted by a mosquito of the genus Aedes.
The WHO estimates as many as 50 million annual cases in the world, including 500 000 cases of dengue ” hemorrhagic “, which are fatal in more than 2.5% of the cases. Initially present in the tropical and subtropical zones of the world, dengue has now reached Europe, where first indigenous cases were identified.
The strains of the virus of dengue fever is divided into four serotypes distinct : DEN-1 to DEN-4. The immunity acquired in response to infection by one serotype confers protective immunity only against that serotype infecting but not against other serotypes. As a result, a person is likely to be infected by each of the four dengue serotypes in the course of his life. Subsequent infections by other serotypes process greater the risk of developing severe dengue, known as ” hemorrhagic “.
The vaccine produced by the French laboratory Sanofi Pasteur is licensed in Mexico, Brazil, el Salvador and the Philippines to protect 9-45 years of age in this potentially deadly virus. The special feature of this vaccine is its ability to immunize individuals against the 4 strains of the dengue virus with an efficiency between 56% and 60%.

Two forms of dengue fever

Dengue fever “classical” manifests itself suddenly after 2 to 7 days of incubation by a high fever with headaches, nausea, vomiting, muscle and joint pain and a rash like that of measles. A brief remission is observed after 3 to 4 days, then the symptoms increase, bleeding conjonctivales, nose bleeds or bruising that may occur, before eventually falling quickly at the end of a week and a convalescence that can last for several weeks.
Dengue ” hemorrhagic “, which represents approximately 1% to 2.5% of cases, is extremely severe : the fever persists and multiple haemorrhages of the gastro-intestinal, skin and brain occur. In children under the age of fifteen years, in particular, a state of hypovolemic shock may set in, causing abdominal pain and cause death if the patient is not resuscitated. There is no specific treatment against the virus.

Concerns around the vaccine

In the Philippines, from April 2016, Dengvaxia has been widely used in the framework of the national vaccination campaign until December 2017, the government expresses its concerns.
After Sanofi announced that the vaccine could aggravate the disease in people who have never been diagnosed with a dengue fever and being infected by the virus for the first time, an emotion has seized the public opinion filipino.
Parents have stated that the vaccine was responsible for the death of their child (14 cases). Even if there is no direct link established between the vaccination and the death of the child, parliamentarians, filipinos have gone so far as to accuse the government to knowingly endanger the health of children. In total, around 830 000 children have received the vaccine.

A survey of philippine

After the death of these 14 children who received the Dengvaxia, the philippine government has opened an investigation. In December 2017, it has also announced to claim the refund of € 22.8 million to Sanofi Pasteur to doses unused.
Sanofi Pasteur, the group’s branch in charge of vaccines, who announced this on Monday that a refund was expected, has pointed out that this decision was ” unrelated to any issues of safety or quality of the Dengvaxia “. In the same press release, Sanofi Pasteur asserts that ” the overall benefits of vaccination against the dengue fever remain positive in countries where the disease is highly endemic, such as the Philippines “.

Sanofi Pasteur has also announced that he hoped that this decision would ” work in a more open and constructive with the ministry of Health of the Philippines to cope with the negative climate around the dengue vaccine today “.