The global fight against dengue is poised to gain more traction over the next three years as French pharmaceutical Sanofi revealed this week the arrival of a vaccine that could potentially save millions from the mosquito-borne disease.

Sanofi chief executive Chris Viehbacher told Reuters on Tuesday that by 2015, the world will finally get a more potent tool to counter the devastating onslaught of dengue, which according to the World Health Organization (WHO) has been killing as many as 20,000 people across the globe each year.

The infection rate was last placed at around 100 million annually and most of the fatalities were children from tropic countries, the young victims' more fragile bodies normally succumbing to the advanced stage of the disease in which internal bleedings have set in, WHO said.

Scientists have tagged a specific mosquito as the culprit, Aedes Aegypti, which they initially believe attacks only during the daytime though recent findings published in the Philippines, where dengue kills thousands yearly, have indicated that the mosquito or at least a variant of it also spreads havoc during nighttimes.

While many of those bitten survive, health experts were alarmed by the death rate attributed to dengue-related diseases, which unsurprisingly goes further up when victims come from poor families who were unable to access proper medical interventions that will turn back the advances of the dengue virus inside the body.

According to Mr Viehbacher, Sanofi is well on its way to deliver the vaccine, which he described as five years ahead of any known similar interventions, very soon and test were already underway in Thailand, the results of which could confirm the shots' efficacy as early as September this year.

Reuters said that 4000 Thai children will receive the vaccine in the months ahead and if their bodies develop sufficient armour against the numerous complications known to be caused by dengue, Sanofi will submit the cure for medical vetting in the United States in November.

That procedure, according to the Paris-based firm, is expected to favour Sanofi's dengue vaccine, which would prompt the company to introduce the product in countries where dengue is thought to be endemic.

Australia is on Sanofi's list of nations where it has to win regulatory approval and latest government data showed that dengue cases have been recorded over the past years in the Northern Territory, New South Wales and in the northern parts of Queensland.

The vaccine, Sanofi said, has yet to be given a commercial name, with the company stressing that it is more focused on raising the cure's efficacy rate that said health experts said should be robust enough for the company to attract both medical and commercial success.

Sanofi has already invested around $440 million, Reuters said, in developing and producing the vaccine with much of the amount poured on a factory in France that will mass-produce the anti-dengue shots.

The heavy commercial investments, health experts noted, could mean that the medicine will not come cheap, which is a letdown as dengue normally afflicts those who cannot afford the high cost of medical services and commercial drugs.

Reuters reported too that Sanofi's product will be delivered in three separate shots spread within a 12-month period in order to effectively fight off the four types of dengue virus that scientists have identified so far.

That should mean more time for patients to combat the disease and more window of opportunity for the virus to sow terror, health experts lamented.

The vaccine, however, is a welcome breakthrough against dengue, according to Duane Gubler, a U.S. expert who has been tracking dengue's movements for more than 40 years.

"Everything they've done so far looks very good," Mr Gubler told Reuters, referring to the encouraging results that Sanofi has so far presented in making its case for the new vaccine.

His positive words are music to the ears of Sanofi, which hopes to realise revenues of at least one billion euro each year once the dengue cure has been rolled out successfully.