Government rules out free dengue vaccine despite record deaths

President Javier Milei’s government will not include a vaccine for Dengue fever in its national vaccination calendar.

Speaking at a press conference in Buenos Aires on Monday, Presidential Spokesperson Maneul Adorni shot down suggestions that the state would make the jab free and compulsory to citizens despite a record number of deaths this year.

Adorni, who also questioned the vaccine’s effectiveness, said talks over its inclusion on the national vaccination calendar are “not on the agenda,” though the decision could be revisited in the future.

"Immunity is achieved over time, so vaccinating now would mean that immunity will be achieved in four months, where the mosquito is no longer a problem, even though its effectiveness has not been proven," said Adorni.

Argentina has seen 79 deaths from dengue over the last eight months, 69 of which have been registered since the turn of the year. In the past week, 22 people have died after infection from the virus.

Infection numbers are soaring. So far in 2024, more than 102,000 cases have been reported, which is 86 percent of the 120,000 cases registered in total, another record.

Milei said in an interview last Sunday that the dengue crisis is "part of Kirchnerism's negligence" – a reference to the government which preceded his in office. He accused them of “not having run a good campaign a year ago.”

For those seeking vaccination, the TAK-003 vaccine, also known as Qdengam, produced by the Japanese laboratory Takeda, is available in Argentina privately.

Each dose against the virus, which is transmitted by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, costs about 70,000 pesos (about US$80 at the official exchange rate), while the minimum wage is set at 202,800 pesos (USS$232).

Eduardo López, an infectious disease doctor at the Buenos Aires Children's Hospital, contradicted Adorni’s remarks.

"Studies show that vaccines are safe and effective," he told the C5N news channel.

Andrea Gamarnik, a virologist, specialist in the dengue virus and researcher at the CONICET scientific research institute, denounced on the X social network that Argentina is "in the worst dengue epidemic in history" but that experts are not "allowed to work" because, she believes, the government is dismantling the scientific system.

A month ago, tens of thousands of people around the world shared videos of mosquito swarms in Argentina. That particular one was an invasion of Aedes Albifasciatus, a species that grows especially after the rains and in open, grassy places, unlike Aegypti, which grows mainly in cities and spreads Zika and chikungunya as well as dengue.