India has approved its first dengue vaccine, Qdenga, for broad use across ages 4 to 60 — a milestone in a country where dengue claims countless lives each year. Yet the clinical data underpinning that approval carry a quiet warning: for children who have never encountered dengue before, the vaccine may leave one serotype not merely unguarded but actively more dangerous, through the same immunological paradox that makes dengue so difficult to defeat. The approval arrives without a requirement to screen for prior infection, placing tens of millions of uninfected children at a crossroads between
India's dengue vaccine approval comes with critical safety gap for uninfected children
Millions of uninfected Indian children face increased risk of severe dengue if vaccinated without screening, potentially leading to hospitalizations and complications from secondary infections.