Should I get vaccinated against dengue for a three-week business trip to Dhaka, Bangladesh? Has the new vaccine that does not require testing for previous exposure been approved? How long in advance is it appropriate to undergo vaccination and with how many doses?
Dengue, record deaths in Argentina. WHO alarm grows
by Valeria Pini
Dear reader,
Bangladesh is considered an endemic area for dengue and last year there was an increase in the number of infections, with over 50,000 cases reported and more than two hundred deaths. As you point out, a new dengue vaccine was approved at the end of last year, directed against the 4 serotypes of the virus and indicated regardless of exposure to the virus, therefore also for travellers. However, the approval by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has not yet been implemented in Italy, and the vaccine is not yet marketed by us. Probably it will be in the coming months, as has already happened elsewhere, such as in the United Kingdom.
Dengue, record deaths in Argentina. WHO alarm grows
by Valeria Pini
While waiting for the vaccine, but actually even after it is made available, the main recommendation against dengue remains prevention from the bites of mosquitoes that transmit the virus, especially Aedes aegypti. These are vectors that are active above all during the day, and especially at dawn and dusk, against which it is recommended to protect yourself, for example, with repellents and favoring environments protected from mosquitoes.
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I have to leave for Brazil, do I have to get vaccinated against Dengue?
*Alessandro Bartoloni is an infectious disease specialist at the Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases (Simit) and full professor of infectious diseases at the University of Florence