President Díaz-Canel praises advances in dengue vaccine candidate

Havana, Mar 21 (Prensa Latina) Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel on Tuesday praised progress achieved in creating new dengue vaccine candidate developed by the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (CIGB).

March 21, 2023
18:11

“Cuba will have, sooner than later, its homegrown vaccine to fight off dengue,” the Cuban leader live-tweeted.

Díaz-Canel shared on Twitter a CIGB publication, explaining that the new dengue vaccine candidate is based on recombinant proteins and has a safe technological platform.

“We have a tetravalent vaccine candidate, based on proteins of the four dengue viruses, which we are evaluating right now,” the CIGB reported.

Getting the vaccine is a complex process because dengue has four serotypes and it is necessary to immunize against each of them at the same time for the product to be effective.

In statements to Granma newspaper, Eduardo Martínez, president of the Business Group of the Biotechnological and Pharmaceutical Industries, argued that such system would make it possible to determine, upon the appearance of the first symptoms, whether it is dengue or a second infection.

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