Dengue cases have reached record highs around the world this year, prompting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue an advisory for travelers to the United States.
Hawaii has not had a localized dengue outbreak since 2016, when health officials confirmed more than 200 cases on the island of Hawaii, but some of its Pacific neighbors have not been so lucky.
CDC researchers recently found that 60 percent of children and adolescents in American Samoa had been infected with dengue fever — an alarming statistic because dengue can be fatal if contracted more than once. HPR spoke with Sandra Kiplagat, CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service officer who led the study.
HPR contacted Sanofi, the manufacturer of the dengue vaccine Dengvaxia, which said in a statement that it had decided to stop producing the vaccine in 2026 “due to low global demand for the product”, adding that “despite the growing dengue epidemic around the world, only one vaccination programme for Dengvaxia is running due to the complexities of introducing this product”.
This interview aired on The Conversation on September 23, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
