Malaysian Firm Says Developing Dengue Vaccine

A Malaysian bio-tech firm is developing a vaccine to prevent dengue fever, an infectious disease carried by mosquitoes that can be fatal, the company said Thursday.

A Malaysian bio-tech firm is developing a vaccine to prevent dengue fever, an infectious disease carried by mosquitoes that can be fatal, the company said Thursday.A vaccine for dengue fever, which is carried by the Aedes aegypti mosquito and infects about 50 million people worldwide every year, has never been developed. AutoImmune Sdn Bhd said its vaccine, was being tested at the University of Malaya’s teaching hospital.”If the results are positive, then it will be good news for everyone,” an official from AutoImmune told Reuters.A professor at the university confirmed the vaccine had been sent there for testing. The findings are due to be released in three months.Malaysia reports about 12,000 dengue fever cases each year. Ten people have died of dengue fever this year.Dengue fever afflicts victims mostly during and shortly after the rainy season in tropical and sub-tropical areas of Africa, Southeast Asia, China, India, the Middle East, Caribbean and Central and South America, Australia and the Pacific. (Source: Reuters, July 2004)