European Medicines Agency validates first vaccine against chikungunya

A breakthrough in the fight against chikungunya. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) gave the green light on Friday May 31 to the first vaccine produced in Europe against the disease. Chikungunya virus infection is an illness similar to dengue fever and that caused by the Zika virus, causing patients to experience symptoms such as high fever and often debilitating joint damage.

The spread of this virus, transmitted to humans by the tiger mosquito, could be favored by climate change, the EMA also warned.

The EMA has granted marketing authorization for the Ixchiq vaccine, produced by the European company Valneva Austria. This is the last step before authorization from the European Commission. The vaccine, which comes in the form of a single dose, stimulates the body’s production of neutralizing antibodies for twenty-eight days after administration to people over 18 years of age. The protection offered by the vaccine lasts six months after administration of the dose.

The disease caused by the virus mainly affects populations living “in tropical and subtropical regions”underlined the EMA, which adds that the “chikungunya is not endemic in Europe”most patients having been infected during travel outside the European continent.