Researchers in Colombia have conducted a promising randomised trial of a vaccine for the dengue virus, a disease that affects thousands of Cambodians every year, according to results published in the September issue of The Lancet.

The study’s authors administered to more than 70 people the experimental DENVax vaccine – a tetravalent drug, so called due to its ability to target all four distinct strains of dengue – and found that, despite some mostly mild side effects, the drug was highly effective in its ability to induce an immune response, or immunogenicity.

Researchers reported that “30 days after the second dose, 47 (62%) of 76 participants given vaccine seroconverted [displayed a successful immune response] to all four [dengue viruses] and 73 (96%) participants seroconverted to three or more dengue viruses”.

Further clinical testing is still warranted, they added.

Cambodia saw more than 1,600 cases in the first seven months of 2014, according to government data.