The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the world’s first vaccine to prevent chikungunya, a mosquito-borne disease that can cause debilitating joint pain for months or years.
The vaccine, sold under the brand Ixchiq, comes at a time when public health experts are increasingly concerned about the spread of vector-borne diseases to new regions due to climate change, posing a greater health risk. human, as reported by the newspaper ‘The Washington Post’.
“Today’s approval addresses an unmet medical need and is an important advance in preventing a potentially debilitating disease with limited treatment options.”said the director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, Peter Marks, in a statement.
Today, we approved the first chikungunya vaccine for individuals 18 years of age and older who are at increased risk of exposure to chikungunya virus. pic.twitter.com/rLqphefxpV
— U.S. FDA (@US_FDA) November 9, 2023
Chikungunya
Chikungunya is a viral disease that is transmitted to humans through the bites of infected Aedes mosquitoes, specifically Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Its symptoms include high fever, severe joint and muscle pain, headaches, and rash.
So far, cases of chikungunya have been identified in more than 110 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and America and, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than two million cases have been reported worldwide since 2005.
Before 2006, the virus was rarely identified in American travelers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but since then, there has been an average of 28 people per year testing positive for the disease and in 2022 the CDC They reported 81 travel-related cases.
Public health experts are concerned that the number of cases will continue to rise because warmer temperatures are optimal for mosquitoes that carry the virus to multiply and thrive.
“This is very much a vaccine for the future because chikungunya is largely not here yet, but it looks like it will be in the coming decades.”said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital.
Climate change
Hotez explained that climate change and urbanization are the main culprits for the increasing prevalence of vector-borne diseases such as chikungunya and added that the approval of Ixchiq lays the foundation for other vaccines to treat mosquito-related diseases.
The FDA has approved Ixchiq, manufactured by biotechnology company Valneva Austria GmbH, as a single-dose injection for people over 18 years of age who are at increased risk of exposure to the disease.
The approval has been granted through the FDA’s accelerated approval process, which is designed to speed up “reasonably likely” treatments for serious or life-threatening diseases. Under this process, the FDA has evaluated the safety of the vaccine in two clinical studies and has tested its effectiveness on the levels of antibodies present in 266 participants who received the vaccine.
Effectiveness
More data on the vaccine is needed to confirm its effectiveness and the severity of its side effects, which include headaches, muscle aches, fever and tenderness at the injection site. As part of the approval process, the FDA requires the manufacturer to conduct additional studies after the injections have been administered.
“As this vaccine is rolled out, it will be important to know that it prevents disease, and those are the types of steps that need to be taken to confirm that it will be a public health success.”said infectious disease doctor and epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health, Albert Ko.
There are no specific antiviral treatments or other preventive interventions for chikungunya, as most acute symptoms resolve within a few days, but some people may develop prolonged arthritic pain. People most at risk of developing severe illness are newborns who were infected at birth and people over 65 years of age.
