Singapore: Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi, has launched the first public dengue immunization program in Parana, a densely populated state in South of Brazil.

"The world finally has a clinical prevention tool against dengue that has been shown to be efficacious in the Brazilian population, as well as endorsed by the WHO," says, Michele Caputo Neto, Minister of Health for Paraná State. "With our strong disease surveillance and community mobilization infrastructure in Paraná State, we are well-positioned to introduce the first public dengue immunization program in the Americas to significantly reduce our disease burden."

The safety, efficacy and public health value of Sanofi Pasteur's dengue vaccine has been independently endorsed by the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE) to the World Health Organization (WHO). This positive WHO recommendation for use of the vaccine in endemic countries like Brazil as part of integrated dengue prevention efforts is based on extensive clinical documentation for the vaccine involving over 40,000 individuals from 15 countries around the world. In these studies, Dengvaxia demonstrated consistent safety and efficacy across a diverse ethnic, geographic and socio-economic population.