Fortune Feature Examines Controversy Over Sanofi Dengue Vaccine In Philippines

Fortune: Epidemic of Fear: How the Trouble-Ridden Debut of a Breakthrough Vaccine Sparked a Panic
“…[W]hile the Philippine news media and most of the politicians involved have moved on, the Dengvaxia controversy continues to have a profound and lasting impact. … In the Philippines, where immunization coverage was already dangerously low, the Dengvaxia scare caused vaccination rates to fall even further, opening the door to infectious diseases once believed to be on the wane. … Which brings up the first of this tale’s tragic, even Shakespearean twists: the fact that the Dengvaxia controversy may well bury forever a vaccine that actually works — not for everyone but for huge swaths of populations in countries where dengue is an urgent and growing public health problem. … Twist No. 2 is this: There is a good chance that Dengvaxia didn’t cause the tragic deaths of those 148 children…” (Fry, 11/26).

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