Dengue Fever News and Research

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Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms typically begin three to fourteen days after infection. These may include a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash.

Calbiotech awarded a SBIR contract to develop analyte specific reagents for the diagnosis of Dengue virus

Calbiotech, Inc. announced today that it has been awarded a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I contract by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material command. Under terms of the agreement, Calbiotech will develop analyte specific reagents (ASRs) for the diagnosis of Dengue virus.

6 Nov 2009

NIAID funds CCHI and IMVC programs to help identify new vaccines for emerging infectious diseases

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded approximately $208 million to two programs that support research to better understand the human immune response to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, including those that may be introduced into a community through acts of bioterrorism.

5 Nov 2009

Rega Institute and CD3 to receive funds for new medication research for dengue treatment

The Laboratory for Virology and Experimental Chemotherapy (Rega Institute) and the "Centre for Drug Design and Discovery" (CD3) at K.U.Leuven will receive a total of 2.8 million euro from the British Wellcome Trust. - They will apply these funds to the search for possible new medication for the treatment of infections related to the 'dengue fever virus'.

26 Oct 2009

Wellcome Trust's 91M fund aims at developing new drugs related to the dengue fever virus

The Wellcome Trust spends over 600 million pounds each year to support its mission to foster and promote research with the aim to improving human and animal health. This funding supports basic research as well as technology transfer, the transfer of academic knowledge and technology to the corporate environment.

26 Oct 2009

Recent releases in Global Health

"The spread of dengue virus throughout the tropics represents a major, rapidly growing public health problem with an estimated 2.5 billion people at risk of dengue fever and the life-threatening disease, severe dengue," write the authors of a Lancet Infectious Diseases review that examines what is known about the virus and progress in the development of a dengue vaccine (Webster et. al, 11/09).

24 Oct 2009

106m infants worldwide received vaccines last year, coverage gaps remain, report says

A joint report by the WHO, UNICEF and the World Bank on worldwide vaccination efforts released Wednesday found "a record 106 million infants were vaccinated last year against life-threatening diseases, but nearly a fifth of the world's babies still are not protected fully," the Associated Press reports.

22 Oct 2009

World Medical Association adopts climate change, task shifting resolutions

At its general assembly in New Delhi, India, the World Medical Association (WMA), "a conglomerate of medical associations around the world," approved a plan that aims "to minimise the risk of increased malnutrition deaths, diseases and injuries due to climate change," IANS/Thaindian News reports (10/17).

20 Oct 2009

UT Southwestern Medical Center awarded $15.7M NIH contract to develop a new virus database

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $15.7 million contract to UT Southwestern Medical Center and Northrop Grumman Corp. to develop an open-access national online database and analysis resource center that will help scientists study and combat viruses such as those that cause hepatitis, encephalitis, smallpox, acute respiratory distress and dengue fever, as well as newly emerging pathogenic viruses.

15 Oct 2009

Inviragen, SingVax merge their complementary vaccine pipelines

Inviragen and SingVax have merged their complementary vaccine pipelines and their international product development capabilities to create a company that is developing a wide range of vaccines for infectious diseases prevalent in emerging economies.

6 Oct 2009

News outlets examines health impact of disasters in Indonesia, Samoa, Philippines

In Indonesia, "[r]escue workers called off the search Monday for life under the rubble left by a massive earthquake, focusing instead on bringing aid to survivors," the Agence France-Presse reports. "The United Nations has said at least 1,100 people were killed in the disaster, but estimates of the final toll range up to 5,000. The official toll stood at 650 dead and 672 missing, according to the health ministry," the news service writes (Belford, 10/5).

6 Oct 2009

MSF calls on drug companies to pool HIV patents

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) recently launched an e-mail campaign calling on nine of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies to "release their patents on specific HIV drugs into a collective pool that will increase access and affordability to treatment in developing countries," Inter Press Service reports (Borde, 10/1).

5 Oct 2009

Bacteria could be used to control mosquitoes, prevent disease, study says

New findings, published in the journal Science, about the bacteria Wolbachia could be used to control mosquito populations and prevent malaria, dengue fever and other mosquito-borne diseases, Discovery News reports.

2 Oct 2009

Deal between GSK, Brazil to strengthen country's pharmaceutical R&D

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Chief Executive Andrew Witty on Friday announced Brazil has agreed to buy roughly $2.2 billion of the company's vaccine for pneumococcal disease, Synflorix, for a period of at least eight years, in exchange for a technology transfer, eventually allowing Brazil to manufacture the vaccine itself, the Wall Street Journal reports.

29 Sep 2009

Associated Press/Washington Post examine contributions of military research to reducing global disease burden

In light of the U.S. Army's announcement yesterday that an experimental HIV vaccine trial it is sponsoring in Thailand showed modest potential for preventing infection, the Associated Press/Washington Post examines how military research is contributing to the fight against major diseases around the world.

25 Sep 2009

Collaboration for the evaluation of peptide copolymer technology

Peptimmune, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company announced today that it has formed a research and development collaboration with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) and the Naval Medical Research Center (NMRC), Silver Spring, MD to evaluate the Company's proprietary DEEP(TM) peptide copolymer technology for the potential development of dengue vaccines and point-of-care diagnostics.

25 Sep 2009

Nanoviricides and Southern Research sign agreement to test anti-Influenza and anti-HIV drug candidates

NanoViricides, Inc. (OTC BB: NNVC.OB) (the "Company"), reported today that it has signed a “Master Service Agreement” with the Southern Research Institute (“Southern Research”), Birmingham, AL. Southern Research is a well established, prestigious institution that has performed preclinical testing services for several vaccines and antivirals.

21 Sep 2009

Study reveals that daily commuting may lead to mosquito-borne diseases

University of Hawaii at Manoa assistant researcher Durrell Kapan recently published a paper, Man Bites Mosquito: Understanding the Contribution of Human Movement to Vector-Borne Disease Dynamics, in PLoS One. Published August 26, the paper highlights how daily commuting patterns in mega-cities may be a critically overlooked factor in understanding the resurgence of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever, infecting 50-100 million people annually.

21 Sep 2009

NIH provides Inviragen second major grant to develop a dengue vaccine

Inviragen has received a $600,000 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, to partially support its continued efforts to develop a safe and effective dengue vaccine. The two-year grant will fund a collaborative effort led by Inviragen and involving scientists at the University of Wisconsin and Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The supported work will include additional optimization of Inviragen’s vaccine to generate more potent immune responses.

10 Sep 2009

Recent releases: PEPFAR in Zimbabwe; dengue in Thailand; blogs on improving U.S. foreign aid; examining allocations of health aid

The U.S. plans to support efforts to develop a sustainable health system in Zimbabwe and increase its capacity to treat people, Eric Goosby, U.S. global AIDS Coordinator for PEPFAR, said on Wednesday after a visit to the country with USAID and CDC officials, according to a press release from the U.S. Embassy in Harare, Zimbabwe. Goosby said he is "optimistic" that the Zimbabwe PEPFAR team's experience will be used "to develop a response that fits the existing health infrastructure, supports it and reinforces it in a way that creates a durable and lasting response" (9/2).

5 Sep 2009

Lancet examines dengue fever in Mexico

Lancet World Report examines the factors contributing to a steady uptick in the number of dengue fever cases in Mexico over the past decade. Compared to the year 2000, when "there were 1,781 reported cases … Last year, the number totalled 33,000, according to Mexico's Public Health Department. And confirmed cases this year have already surpassed 2008 figures by 15%," according to the journal.

24 Aug 2009