Dithering over dengue

Thursday, 27 July 2017 00:42 -     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Dengue deaths have now gone past 300 in the island, with the number of cases being reported islandwide presently over the 100,000 mark for the first seven months of the year. 

Over 43% of those cases are from the Western Province alone – the hardest hit so far. The number of hospital admissions is hard to ascertain at the moment as the authorities have stopped releasing those figures for reasons best known to them.

A lot of the blame for this unfortunate state of affairs can be laid squarely at the door of the Government, with the garbage issue that’s been piling up over the past few weeks and the delay in local government elections that has in turn worsened the garbage issue, among other things, having undoubtedly contributed to the worst dengue outbreak in recent history. 

However, what is most frustrating about this dire situation is that a readymade solution is at hand - the Government just needs to grab it. Pharmaceutical giant Sanofi Pasteur made waves in recent months with the announcement of the world’s first WHO-approved dengue vaccine.

In Sri Lanka, Sanofi Pasteur in June of last year submitted an application for marketing approval to the Ministry of Health and patients as well as medical industry analysts are fuming over the undue delay in its final approval. This in turn has brought into stark contrast the differing plights of the haves and the have-nots after it came to light this week that the rich in recent weeks have flown to Singapore, one of the 17 countries where the vaccine is available for sale, to get a potentially lifesaving dose of the vaccine.

So the question remains, why the delay? In March of this year, the National Medicines Regulatory Authority had informed Sanofi Pasteur that it needs to assess post-marketing surveillance data from countries in which the vaccine has been used for a period of one year before making a decision on approval of the vaccine. 

A spokesperson for Sanofi Pasteur said that the company responded to the queries of the NMRA in a letter dated 4 April 2017 and provided long-term safety and efficacy data from clinical trials involving over 35,000 subjects and post-marketing safety surveillance. 

According to the Health Ministry, another reason for the delay is that the vaccine at present is only 52% effective. The argument is that it may not be worth the cost of bringing it down for such a low success rate. As such, the ministry is actively looking at alternatives.

This reasoning however jars when it brought up against the reality of the situation. Cases of dengue have doubled since this time last year, and this particular strain of dengue is being reported to be particularly devastating. The exact number of reported deaths has now reached 301.

The vaccine by Sanofi Pasteur is the culmination of over two decades of scientific innovation and collaboration as well as 25 clinical studies in 15 countries involving 40,000 volunteers around the world. It may not be foolproof but along with other preventive measures it is hard to argue against. In the last year 17 countries have made it available - with that number set to rise - how many more have to die before we do the same?

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