Washington. The United States approved this Thursday a vaccine from the Valneva group against chikungunya, the first against this viral disease present in some areas of America and spread by mosquito bites.
The vaccine will be marketed under the name Ixchiq and is authorized for use in people over 18 years of age, who are more exposed to the virus, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported in a statement.
The most common symptoms of the infection are fever and joint pain, but it can also cause a rash. Severe joint pain lasts a few days, but can persist for months or even years.
“Chikungunya is an emerging global health threat, with at least 5 million cases of infection with the virus recorded over the past 15 years,” the FDA reported.
The highest risk of infection is in tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Southeast Asia and, since late 2013, parts of the Americas.
“Chikungunya virus infection can cause serious illness and long-term health problems, especially in the elderly and individuals with underlying medical problems,” explains Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
The vaccine is injected in one dose and contains an attenuated version of the chikungunya virus, a frequently used technique.
Two clinical trials
Two clinical trials were conducted in North America with thousands of people.
The main side effects of the vaccine are headaches, muscle pain, fatigue and even nausea; More serious reactions have been observed in a few cases, the FDA said.
Two clinical trial participants who received the vaccine had to be hospitalized.
To date, there was no vaccine or treatment with antiviral drugs for this disease, whose name comes from the African Makonde language and means “to bend over in pain.”
The only way to avoid chikungunya, first described during an outbreak in southern Tanzania in 1952, was to use insect repellents.
To transmit the virus, it needs a vector, which is the mosquito, and you can only suffer from the disease once, after which the person develops immunity for life, explains the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) on its website.
Mothers who have chikungunya during pregnancy “do not transmit the virus to their babies” but there are cases of maternal transmission to the newborn when the mother has a fever just days before or at the time of delivery, PAHO adds.
The Valneva company also submitted an application for authorization to the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
2023-11-10 04:19:07
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