09/11/2023 – 22:53
The United States approved, this Thursday (9), a vaccine from the Valneva group against chikungunya, the first against this viral disease present in the Americas, which is spread through mosquito bites.
The vaccine will be marketed under the name Ixchiq and is authorized for people over 18, who are most exposed to the virus, the US Food and Drug Administration said in a statement.
The most common symptoms of the infection are fever and joint pain, but the virus can also cause skin irritation.
Severe joint pain lasts for a few days, but can persist for months and even years.
Chikungunya “is an emerging threat to global health, with at least five million cases of infection” with the virus recorded over the past 15 years, the FDA reports.
The greatest risk of infection is in the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Southeast Asia and, since the end of 2013, parts of the Americas.
“Chikungunya virus infection can cause serious illness and long-term health problems, especially in older people and individuals with underlying medical problems,” explains Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, quoted in the statement. .
The vaccine consists of an injectable dose and contains an attenuated version of the chikungunya virus, a frequently used immunization technique.
– Two clinical trials –
Two clinical trials were carried out in North America with thousands of people.
The main side effects are headaches or muscle pain, fatigue and even nausea, and in a few cases more serious reactions have been observed, the FDA said.
Two clinical trial participants who received the vaccine had to be hospitalized.
Until now, there was no vaccine or treatment with antiviral drugs for this disease, whose name comes from the African Makonde language and means “to bow down in pain”.
The only way to avoid chikungunya, first described during an outbreak in southern Tanzania in 1952, was to use insect repellents.
To be transmitted, the virus needs a vector, which is the mosquito, and it is only possible to suffer from the disease once, as the person develops lifelong immunity, 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 reports of cases of maternal transmission to the newborn when the mother has a fever a few days before or at the time of birth, he adds.
Valneva also submitted an application for authorization to the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
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