Anti-dengue vaccine to be ready in six years: Expert

New Delhi, Nov 16 (IANS) A vaccine to fight the deadly dengue fever, being developed at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) here, would be ready in another six years, an expert said Wednesday.

'The vaccine will take another six years to be completely fit to fight against the disease,' said an ICGEB expert, who did not want to be named, on the sidelines of an international symposium on vaccines organised here by the department of biotechnology.

Nearly 220 million people are infected annually with dengue across the globe. In India, over a million people are hit annually by the disease which is considered to be a major factor for mortality among children.

'The institute is currently developing a non-infectious dengue vaccine based on the Hepatitis B vaccine technology,' the expert said.

The research process will be focusing on developing a tetravalent vaccine - which will be able to fight all four dengue serotypes, the expert said.

The four-day symposium, which started Monday, is focused on developing vaccines to fight infections responsible for high mortality, including dengue, chikungunya, malaria and HIV-AIDS.