Eduardo Martínez Díaz, president of Biocubafarma, announced that the new rapid diagnosis system for dengue should be available in 2023, and the first vaccine candidate against this viral disease will be defined this year
The progress achieved could be translated into concrete results for this year, confirmed BioCubaFarma.
The Cuban projects for the rapid diagnosis of dengue and the preventive vaccine against this disease show important advances, which could be translated into concrete results for this year, authorities of the Business Group of the Biotechnological and Pharmaceutical Industries (Biocubafarma) confirmed today.
On Twitter, Eduardo Martínez Díaz, president of Biocubafarma, announced that the new rapid diagnosis system for dengue should be available in 2023, to supply the Cuban Ministry of Public Health.
Also, he said, it is quite likely that the first vaccine candidate against this viral disease, transmitted by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, will be defined this year.
“Both projects will have a significant impact on the health and well-being of our population,” concluded Martínez Díaz.
Specialists have explained that this vaccine is complex, because dengue has four serotypes and it is necessary to immunize against each of them at the same time to achieve the effectiveness of the product.
After having the vaccine candidate, we think that in 2024 we could be carrying out clinical trials in humans, the president of Biocubafarma recently told ACN.
On the other hand, the new rapid diagnosis system will make it possible to determine when the first symptoms occur if it is dengue, and if there is a second infection.
This will contribute to giving a differentiated treatment to patients to avoid the progression to the severity of the disease and death, stressed Martínez Díaz.
According to the World Health Organization, although many dengue virus infections cause only a mild illness, the pathogen can cause an acute flu-like illness or progress to life-threatening complications (severe dengue).
The international organization indicates that early detection of the worsening of the disease associated with severe dengue, and access to adequate medical care, reduces the fatality rates of severe dengue to less than one percent.
