The world’s first public dengue vaccination programme was launched in the Philippines on Monday as nurses began injecting the first batch of a million children with a French drug to combat the sometimes deadly disease.

According to AFP News Agency, several hundred children aged nine to 10 queued in front of government health workers at a public school in eastern Manila for the injections, capping a 20-year, 1.5-billion-euro effort by French drug manufacturer Sanofi to develop the vaccine.

“We are the first country to introduce, adopt and implement the first-ever dengue vaccine through the public health system and under public school settings,” said Philippine Health Secretary Janette Garin.

The Philippines had in December approved the vaccine, the first to be licensed globally to combat the mosquito-borne disease for people aged between nine and 45.

Dengue or haemorrhagic fever, the world’s most common mosquito-borne virus, infects an estimated 390 million people in more than 120 countries each year, killing more than 25,000, according to the World Health Organization.

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