A biologist at New Caledonia's Pasteur Research Centre says progress in the development of a new dengue vaccine is good news for Pacific countries.
Photo: AFP
The French pharmaceutical company Sanofi says late stage clinical trials have shown the new vaccine is highly effective against severe cases of the disease and is a step closer to registration, and possibly in use within a year.
Myrielle Du Pont says three doses of the vaccine are likely to be needed for effective cover.
She says it will be up to the governments of the Pacific countries whether they take up use of the vaccine.
"Dengue fever is a huge problem for the Pacific region. We've got many islands, we've got many vectors. And for example in New Caledonia we had a huge epidemic of dengue fever in 2013 it was the dengue 1 serotype. And actually there are other serotypes circulating in the region."
Head of the arbovirus research unit at New Caledonia's Pasteur Research Centre, Myrielle Du Pont.
