The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the first vaccine against chikungunya virus, a disease that is primarily transmitted to people through infected mosquito bites.
The vaccine, Ixchiq, was approved for people 18 years and older who are at an increased risk of exposure to the virus, in what officials said is an emerging global health threat, with at least 5 million cases reported during the past 15 years.
Experts said the highest risk of infection is in the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Southeast Asia, and parts of the Americas, where the virus-carrying mosquitoes are endemic. But chikungunya virus has spread elsewhere, causing more cases of the disease globally, officials said in a release.
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