The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) [1] has published a collection of studies selected by its editors as the most notable and impactful of 2024 in clinical medicine. Among the 14 selected is the work Live, Attenuated, Tetravalent Butantan-Dengue Vaccine in Children and Adults, in which two researchers from Fiocruz Bahia were involved, Aldina Barral and Viviane Boaventura.

Butantan-Dengue (Butantan-DV) is an experimental, single-dose, live-attenuated, tetravalent dengue vaccine that has assessed overall efficacy in an ongoing double-blind phase 3 study in Brazil. Participants were randomly assigned to receive Butantan-DV or placebo, stratified according to age (2 to 6 years, 7 to 17 years, and 18 to 59 years). The researchers concluded that a single dose of Butantan-DV prevented dengue in symptomatic serotypes 1 and 2, regardless of the dengue serological status at the start of the study, during 2 years of follow-up.

Editor Scott B. Halstead highlighted the importance of the clinical trials of the Brazilian experimental vaccine in the text entitled Three Dengue Vaccines — What Now? Halstead pointed out that the existing vaccines are currently administered in three doses, in the case of Dengvaxia, and two doses, in the case of Takeda, better known as Qdenga, which in Brazil is available through the Unified Health System (SUS). "Given the realities of the dimensions of the dengue pandemic in the 20th and 21st centuries, a highly effective single-dose tetravalent vaccine remains in high demand. Butantan-DV's clinical trials should continue and, if possible, be expanded," he said.

The contents of the publication include abstracts of articles, accompanying editorials and plain language summaries of the selected studies, as well as a letter from the editor-in-chief, Eric J. Rubin. Access the NEJM issue here