Brazil to release its own dengue vaccine by 2018

Brazil announced on Thursday that the vaccination against dengue developed by the country will be available by 2018 when all the tests are finished.

"We are currently hoping for a safe vaccine against dengue to be developed fully ... At best we will have the vaccine in 2018," said Brazil's Health Minister Artur Chioro in an interview.

The biomedical research centers, the Butantan Institute in Sao Paulo and the Fiocruz in Rio de Janeiro, are currently carrying out the tests.

The Butantan Institute last week received approval from the National Technical Commission for Biosecurity (CTNBio) to begin the vaccination's third phase of clinical studies.

This phase will be carried out in cooperation with U.S. biomedical research facility, the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The third phase is the final one before the product is evaluated by regulatory agencies.

The Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne viral infection. The global incidents of dengue have grown dramatically in recent decades and about half of the world's population is now at risk, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Severe dengue is a leading cause of serious illness and death among children in some Asian and Latin American countries.

One recent estimate indicates 390 million dengue infections per year, of which 96 million are reported clinically, the WHO said. Endi