2023-11-14 05:00:02
Until now, no vaccine or specific treatment was available against chikungunya, a viral disease transmitted by mosquito bites. Outbreaks of chikungunya cases have become increasingly frequent and widespread over the past twenty years, affecting more than 110 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas. The first vaccine against chikungunya was authorized in the USA on November 9, 2023. Explanations.
Chikungunya, an increasingly worrying vector-borne disease
Vector diseases transmitted by mosquitoes include malaria, dengue fever and chikungunya. For years, researchers have been trying to develop vaccines to limit the impact of these diseases on public health. On November 9, 2023, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the American drug agency, has authorized the marketing on the American market of the first vaccine against chikungunya.
Over the last 15 years, at least 5 million cases of chikungunya have been recorded worldwide, and the threat grows from year to year. Among the symptoms of the disease are:
- Headaches ;
- A flu syndrome: fever, joint pain;
- Muscle pain;
- A rash.
In some people, severe forms of the infection are described, with the persistence of disabling joint pain for several months or even years.
A first vaccine against chikungunya
The first vaccine against this viral disease, Ixchiq®, is now approved in the USA to protect adults at high risk of exposure to the virus. It is aimed in particular at the tens of millions of Americans who travel each year to countries where infection is endemic. This vaccine offers the first direct means of combating chikungunya, a disease for which there is currently no specific treatment. Currently, affected patients are managed with symptomatic treatments:
- Rest ;
- Good hydration;
- Medicines for fever and pain.
The Ixchiq® vaccine is a live attenuated vaccine, administered intramuscularly in a single dose. Like any live attenuated vaccine, it can trigger symptoms similar to those seen during infection with the virus. In clinical trials, these symptoms were observed in less than 2% of vaccinated subjects. Protection against chikungunya induced by the vaccine is significant, according to a clinical trial carried out on 266 vaccinated subjects. Thus, 98.9% of subjects who received the dose of vaccine presented protective antibodies 28 days after vaccination. This vaccination response was maintained in 96.3% of participants 6 months after vaccination.
A vaccine soon available in Europe?
Given its innovative nature, this first vaccine against chikungunya benefited from an accelerated procedure for placing it on the American market. This authorization will be re-evaluated after 12 months of marketing to determine its effectiveness and safety of use in real life. At the same time, the pharmaceutical laboratory behind the development of this first vaccine is continuing its clinical studies to evaluate the vaccine response over 5 years and thus determine whether booster vaccinations are necessary and, if so, how often.
The Ixchiq® vaccine, the first vaccine against chikungunya, constitutes the first means of specific control against a vector-borne disease, which threatens more and more people around the world. A marketing authorization application (AMM) could soon be submitted by the laboratory to market this vaccine on the European market.
Estelle B., Doctor of Pharmacy
Sources
– Valneva receives US FDA approval of the world’s first chikungunya vaccine, IXCHIQ®.valneva.com. Accessed October 13, 2023.
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