Mexico clears for use the world's first dengue fever vaccine


Now that the world's first dengue vaccine has won regulatory approval in Mexico, health officials there estimate it will prevent 8,000 hospitalizations and 104 deaths a year.
As many as 400 million people around the globe are infected with dengue every year, the World Health Organization says, and it is endemic in more than 100 countries. It's the fastest-growing mosquito-borne disease in the world and has no known cure, and kids are particularly at risk of becoming infected. There are four separate strains of dengue, and the deadliest form kills 22,000 people every year.
Researchers had to come up with a vaccine that could immunize people against each strain, and clinical tests of 40,000 participants from 15 countries found that the vaccine can immunize two-thirds of people 9 years old and up. The vaccine, Dengvaxia, is manufactured by the French company Sanofi, which has requested regulatory approval in 20 countries across Latin America and Asia. The price hasn't been decided yet, but the head of Sanofi's vaccines division says it could generate more than $1 billion a year in revenue, Agence France-Presse reports. Mexico's National Vaccination Council will soon convene to determine if the country will start giving residents Dengvaxia for free, said Mikel Arriola, the head of the regulatory agency. "It's a great step forward," he told AFP.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
Icarus programme – the ‘internet of animals’
The Explainer Researchers aim to monitor 100,000 animals worldwide with GPS trackers, using data to understand climate change and help predict disasters and pandemics
-
Experience Tanzania’s untamed wilderness from Lemala’s luxury lodges
The Week Recommends The vast protected landscapes are transformed into a verdant paradise during ‘emerald season’
-
Sudoku hard: October 9, 2025
The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle
-
FDA OKs generic abortion pill, riling the right
Speed Read The drug in question is a generic version of mifepristone, used to carry out two-thirds of US abortions
-
RFK Jr. vaccine panel advises restricting MMRV shot
Speed Read The committee voted to restrict access to a childhood vaccine against chickenpox
-
Texas declares end to measles outbreak
Speed Read The vaccine-preventable disease is still spreading in neighboring states, Mexico and Canada
-
RFK Jr. shuts down mRNA vaccine funding at agency
Speed Read The decision canceled or modified 22 projects, primarily for work on vaccines and therapeutics for respiratory viruses
-
Measles cases surge to 33-year high
Speed Read The infection was declared eliminated from the US in 2000 but has seen a resurgence amid vaccine hesitancy
-
Kennedy's vaccine panel signals skepticism, change
Speed Read RFK Jr.'s new vaccine advisory board intends to make changes to the decades-old US immunization system
-
Kennedy ousts entire CDC vaccine advisory panel
speed read Health Secretary RFK Jr. is a longtime anti-vaccine activist who has criticized the panel of experts
-
RFK Jr. scraps Covid shots for pregnant women, kids
Speed Read The Health Secretary announced a policy change without informing CDC officials