首支登革熱疫苗被準在菲律賓銷售

The Philippines became the first Asian country on Tuesday to approve the sale of the world's first-ever dengue vaccine.

本週四，菲律賓宣佈成爲亞洲第一個批准全球首支登革熱疫苗銷售的國家。

Dengvaxia, manufactured by French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, secured its first regulatory approval in Mexico a fortnight ago and is currently being reviewed by around 20 countries in Asia and Latin America.

兩週前，由法國製藥巨頭賽諾菲研發的Dengvaxia在墨西哥獲得批准通過，並且在近期由20個亞洲和拉丁美洲國家審覈。

It is hoped the drug could eventually help prevent millions of deaths from dengue, the world's fastest-growing mosquito-borne disease.

人們希望這種藥物最終能夠幫助上百萬人脫離登革熱的死亡威脅。登革熱是世界上擴散速度最快的蚊媒疾病。

The World Health Organization says as many as 400 million people are infected worldwide every year, and two-thirds are in Asia.

世界衛生組織表示，全球每年都有4億人感染登革熱，其中三分之二的患者是來自亞洲。

"It's a major step in the prevention of dengue and for public health," Olivier Charmeil, head of Sanofi's vaccines division, said in a statement.

賽諾菲疫苗事業部的部長Olivier Charmeil在聲明中寫道：“這是預防登革熱和維護公共健康的重要一步。”

Scientists have long been stumped by dengue, which has four separate strains, forcing researchers to find a drug able to fight all of them at once.

科學家們曾長期爲登革熱所困惑。登革熱有四種分離的菌株，這迫使研究人員去尋找能夠一次殺滅所有菌株的藥物。

Clinical tests -- carried out on 40,000 people from 15 countries -- have found Dengvaxia can immunise two-thirds of people aged nine years and older, rising to 93 percent for the more severe form of the disease, dengue haemorrhagic fever.

來自15個國家的4萬人參與的臨牀測試發現，Dengvaxia能夠讓三分之二九十歲甚至更年長的人對登革熱免疫，使他們有93%的機率不會患上登革出血熱。登革出血熱是登革熱中最嚴重的一種。