Brazil will receive dengue vaccine next week

The new dengue vaccine, the immunizer QDENGA, will arrive in Brazil next week and will start to be applied only in private clinics at that first moment. It will cost between R$350 and R$500 reais, depending on the tax rates of each state.

The vaccine is developed by the Japanese pharmaceutical company takedaand was approved by the ANVISA in March of this year and in its final report, the regulatory body states that the dose “provides broad protection against dengue” and indicates that the vaccine is for the public between four and sixty years of age and people who have never had contact with the virus that causes dengue.

This is the first vaccine approved in Brazil for a wider audience, as the other previously approved vaccine was restricted only to those who had dengue, and has a low demand in clinics.

The QDENGA vaccination schedule comprises two application stages, with a three-month interval between each dose. In all, those who are vaccinated will have to disburse between R$800 and R$1 thousand reais.

The vaccine at this first moment will not be purchased by the Ministry of Health for application in the SUS, because, for this to happen and be distributed to all states and municipalities in the country, it is necessary that the National Commission for the Incorporation of Technologies in the Unified System of Health, Conitec, study its incorporation into the SUS. Studies are ongoing and there is a forecast that from mid-2024 it will be made available for free via the Unified Health System.

The approved vaccine has an effectiveness rate of 76.1% for people who have had contact with the virus before, and for those who have never been infected with the dengue virus, this rate is 66.2% effective. The protection offered by the vaccine is twelve months after the application of the second dose.

It took four years of study, in a robust study with more than twenty thousand volunteers.

The year 2023 is considered in absolute numbers as the worst in the incidence of the disease in Brazil, with an increase of 22% in the number of cases between the previous year of 2022 in the same period. There have already been six hundred and thirty-five confirmed deaths and four hundred and twenty still under investigation.

Featured photo: Dengue vaccine starting next week will be in private laboratories. Photo/reproduction/Twitter/@ultimosecond