NEW DELHI: India has approved its first dengue vaccine, authorising the use of Japanese drugmaker Takeda’s Qdenga jab, the health ministry said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dengue, which causes severe flu-like symptoms and debilitating body aches, has exploded globally, fuelled by rising temperatures and densely populated cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) approved the vaccine for people between the ages of four and 60 after reviewing its quality, safety and efficacy, the ministry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The vaccine is indicated for the prevention of dengue disease in individuals 4 to 60 years of age,” it said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Qdenga is given as two injections, three months apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Takeda has a collaboration with Indian vaccine maker Biological E, aimed at expanding the drug’s manufacturing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The vaccine protects against all four dengue virus serotypes and is approved in 42 countries, including the European Union, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Indonesia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It has also received World Health Organisation (WHO) prequalification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 24 million doses have been distributed worldwide, with no major safety concerns reported so far, the ministry said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dengue has spread rapidly in recent decades due to urbanisation, climate change and changing weather patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the WHO, nearly half the world’s population is at risk, with an estimated 100 million to 400 million infections each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 2021, India has reported more than one million dengue cases and at least 1,500 deaths, according to the latest official data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
India is also set to get its own dengue vaccine with Panacea Biotec’s candidate, DengiAll, having entered the final stage of clinical trials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once approved, it would become one of the world’s first single-dose dengue vaccines. (AFP) RSS<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NEW DELHI: India has approved its first dengue vaccine, authorising the use of Japanese drugmaker Takeda’s Qdenga jab, the health ministry said on Tuesday. Dengue, which causes severe flu-like symptoms and debilitating body aches, has exploded globally, fuelled by rising temperatures and densely populated cities. India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) approved the vaccine …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":432960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,24,4,5,2],"tags":[],"reporter":[],"class_list":["post-432959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english","category-international","category-en-news","category-top-stories","category-top-stories-main"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432959"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432959"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432961,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432959\/revisions\/432961"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432959"},{"taxonomy":"reporter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radionepalonline.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reporter?post=432959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}