Dengue fever is responsible for about 100,000 hospitalizations and nearly 100 deaths each year, many of them children.
Dengue fever remains a global threat to public health. In Vietnam, dengue fever causes about 100,000 hospitalizations and nearly 100 deaths each year, many of them children.
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| Dengue fever is responsible for about 100,000 hospitalizations and nearly 100 deaths each year, many of them children. |
Speaking at a recent meeting on the epidemic, Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Lien Huong said dengue fever is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that is spreading rapidly around the world. The disease is spreading rapidly geographically and more and more countries and territories are experiencing dengue fever.
Statistics from the World Health Organization show that there are currently about 2.5 billion people living in areas where dengue fever is endemic; of which 1.8 billion people are in the Asia-Pacific region.
Dengue fever threatens the health and lives of about half of the world's population, with an estimated 100-400 million infections occurring each year.
According to Dr. Hoang Minh Duc, Director of the Department of Preventive Medicine, Ministry of Health, globally as of early May 2024, there were more than 7.6 million reported cases of dengue fever, and more than 3,000 deaths.
In Southeast Asia, Singapore has now recorded twice as many dengue cases as in the same period in 2023; in Indonesia, by March 2024, more than 21,000 cases and at least 191 deaths had been recorded.
In Vietnam, since the beginning of the year, the whole country has recorded 30,265 cases of dengue fever, 3 deaths. Compared to the same period in 2023, the number of cases decreased by more than 30%; the number of deaths decreased by 6 cases.
To date, there is no specific treatment for dengue fever. Vaccines are available but have not been widely used. Prevention and control of dengue fever currently relies mainly on vector control and changes in people's behavior and habits. Countries with dengue fever have invested a lot of resources, but the results are still limited.
Experts say that dengue fever has 4 serotypes that cause the disease, and does not create cross-immunity, so each person can get the disease 4 times in their lifetime and the subsequent infections will be more severe due to the influence of cross-immune complexes.
If not given timely emergency care and treatment, patients, especially high-risk groups such as children, pregnant women, people with chronic diseases, and obesity, may experience dangerous complications such as hypotension, heart failure, kidney failure, hemorrhagic shock, multiple organ failure, cerebral hemorrhage, coma, etc. For pregnant women, dengue fever can cause fetal distress, premature birth, stillbirth, etc.
The dengue fever prevention and control program has been included in the national target program for more than 10 years, contributing to achieving three goals: reducing the incidence rate, reducing the mortality rate and controlling major epidemics.
However, due to many subjective and objective reasons, from the characteristics of the disease; issues of climate change, natural disasters, floods and storms; urbanization, migration, increased trade and tourism; people's behaviors and habits to difficulties in investment resources and limitations in inter-sectoral coordination, the control, prevention and control of dengue fever are increasingly facing many difficulties and challenges.
The Ministry of Health identifies that dengue fever prevention and control is not only a matter of the health sector alone but requires the participation of the entire political system, the coordination of all levels, sectors, socio-political organizations, international friends, people, communities and the whole society.
It is known that there are currently 2 vaccines that have been pre-qualified by the World Health Organization and licensed by a number of countries: CYD-TDV vaccine and TAK-003 vaccine (currently registered for circulation by the Vietnamese Ministry of Health).
CYD-TDV vaccine is the first dengue virus vaccine licensed in the world in December 2015 in Mexico.
This vaccine is used for subjects aged 9 to 45 years old living in epidemic areas. Dengvaxia vaccine is a tetravalent, live attenuated dengue vaccine researched and developed by the vaccine division of Sanofi group - Sanofi Pasteur.
According to official information from the World Health Organization (WHO), the effectiveness of this vaccine in protecting the body against the Dengue virus that causes dengue fever depends on many factors, including age, number of injections and the type of Dengue virus circulating locally.
The CYD-TDV vaccine has not yet been prequalified by WHO, so it is not yet circulated worldwide but is only allowed to be circulated in certain countries where the national regulatory agency has issued a circulation certificate.
Takeda's dengue vaccine, TAK-003 (trademarked as QDENGA), has been licensed for use in more than 30 countries, including the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom, Argentina, and countries with similar dengue epidemics to Vietnam such as Indonesia, Brazil, and recently Thailand.
Test results have shown that this vaccine is capable of creating an immune response against all four strains of Dengue virus circulating globally, helping to prevent disease and reduce the risk of hospitalization for people with dengue fever.
According to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the QDENGA vaccine has been approved for use in people from 4 years old regardless of whether they have been infected or not.
According to Dr. Angela Pratt, World Health Organization Representative in Vietnam, along with Aedes mosquito surveillance and control measures, safe and effective vaccines play an important role in reducing the burden of dengue fever.
The dengue fever vaccine is considered by experts as a "new weapon to deal with the epidemic", helping millions of people to be effectively protected... However, the vaccine is not the only solution but requires close interdisciplinary coordination between Vietnamese agencies.
Source: https://baodautu.vn/ky-vong-ngan-sot-xuat-huyet-bang-vac-xin-d218933.html
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