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.

Health experts warn of linkages between climate change, increased malnutrition

"Malnutrition is likely to be the most serious health threat linked to climate shifts in the coming decades, as farmers struggle to cope with more unpredictable weather, ... epidemiologist Kris Ebi warned during a recent World Health Organization (WHO) briefing on adapting health systems to climate shifts," AlertNet reports.

20 Sep 2012

Number of recorded dengue cases up 36% over last year in Costa Rica

"A total of 8,480 people have been affected by dengue fever in Costa Rica" so far this year, representing an increase of 36 percent, or 2,230 more cases than during the same period last year, according to a Ministry of Health report, Xinhua News reports.

19 Sep 2012

Clinical trial results signal 'promise, unresolved challenges' in finding effective dengue vaccine

The first-ever results from a dengue virus vaccine clinical trial aimed at showing effectiveness "provide signals rather than definitive answers, and a mixture of both promise and unresolved challenges," Orin Levine, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center, and Ciro de Quadros, executive vice president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, write in the Huffington Post "Impact" blog.

14 Sep 2012

Breakthrough for dengue vaccine development

A live-attenuated vaccine against the four strains of dengue virus known as CYD-TDV has demonstrated promising efficacy in a phase IIb trial.

12 Sep 2012

Leading dengue fever vaccine candidate 30% effective in first large clinical trial

"The leading candidate to become the world's first vaccine against dengue fever was only 30 percent effective in its first large clinical trial, dealing at least a temporary setback to efforts to control a disease that threatens half the world's population," the New York Times reports.

12 Sep 2012

Dengue vaccine breakthrough

Results of the first ever trial to show that a safe and effective dengue vaccine may be possible are published Online First in The Lancet.

11 Sep 2012

WHO releases dengue strategy report, sets goal of cutting related deaths in half by 2020

"Saying dengue virus infections and deaths have mushroomed in recent years, the World Health Organization (WHO) recently released a strategy report that sets a goal of cutting deaths in half and reducing cases by 25 percent over the next eight years," CIDRAP reports.

6 Sep 2012

People need to protect themselves against West Nile virus

As this year's threat from the West Nile virus continues, one infectious diseases expert at the University of Alabama at Birmingham says a vaccine is not in our near future, so people need to protect themselves.

5 Sep 2012

Link between specific weather conditions and dengue fever outbreaks

Dengue fever, transmitted by the Aedes mosquito, affects hundreds of millions of people in around one hundred tropical countries and causes 25 000 deaths per year. In the absence of a vaccine, determining the factors that influence epidemics to predict them better is a real public health challenge. One scientific study, conducted in New Caledonia, demonstrates the essential role of the local climate in epidemic dynamics. IRD researchers and their New Caledonian colleagues analysed epidemiological and climatological data gathered in Noumea over forty years.

23 Aug 2012

BioDiem and French partner VIVALIS a step forward in developing vaccines for diseases and related cancers

Australian infectious disease therapy and vaccine development company BioDiem Ltd (ASX: BDM) announced today successful results from two programs of work carried out by French partner VIVALIS (NYSE Euronext: VLS), confirming the ability of BioDiem’s Live Attenuated Influenza Virus (LAIV) to grow in VIVALIS’ proprietary EB66® cell line.

20 Aug 2012

Creating new non-influenza vaccines: an interview with Julie Phillips, CEO of BioDiem

BioDiem recently signed a collaborative agreement with The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) for the development of non-influenza vaccines using BioDiem’s proprietary live attenuated influenza virus (LAIV) technology.

7 Aug 2012

Experimental dengue vaccine protects against 3 of 4 viral strains, study results show

"The world's first vaccine against dengue fever, being developed by French drugmaker Sanofi SA, protected against three of the virus's four strains in a keenly awaited clinical trial in Thailand," the company announced on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

28 Jul 2012

Cost of dengue vaccine production could be as low as $0.20 per dose

Research funded by the Dengue Vaccine Initiative (DVI) involving an economic analysis of producing a tetravalent dengue vaccine shows that the cost could be as low as $0.20 per dose with an annual production level of 60 million doses packaged in ten-dose vials. The study used data on a vaccine developed by US NIH and the facilities of the Instituto Butantan in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

29 Jun 2012

FDA approves test for dengue virus infection

The first test that can detect the presence of the dengue virus itself rather than antibodies to the virus has been approved for use by the US Food and Drug Administration.

27 Jun 2012

FDA approves CDC DENV-1-4 Real Time RT PCR Assay to treat dengue

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has developed a new diagnostic test to detect the presence of dengue virus in people with symptoms of dengue fever or dengue hemorrhagic fever. The test, called the CDC DENV-1-4 Real Time RT PCR Assay, has been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for use in the United States and can be performed using equipment and supplies many public health laboratories already use to diagnose influenza.

21 Jun 2012

Transgenic mosquitoes can control malaria

Mosquitoes bred to be unable to infect people with the malaria parasite are an attractive approach to helping curb one of the world's most pressing public health issues, according to UC Irvine scientists.

13 Jun 2012

Magazine examines efforts to biologically alter bugs to fight human diseases

Pacific Standard magazine examines efforts by researchers around the globe to biologically modify bugs to fight human diseases, such as dengue fever. "Biologically altering bugs isn't entirely new; it's been done for nearly half a century to protect crops. ...

8 Jun 2012

Dengue fever vaccine 'may be in sight,' Reuters reports

Reuters reports on efforts to develop a vaccine for dengue fever, writing that "victory over ... the intensely painful 'breakbone fever' ... may be in sight." Paris-based firm Sanofi "hopes for positive results in September from a key trial among children in Thailand that would set it on course to market a shot in 2015, which would prevent an estimated 100 million cases of dengue infection each year," the news service writes.

7 Jun 2012

Neighborhood immunity has a role in determining risk of dengue infection

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have found evidence of a role for neighborhood immunity in determining risk of dengue infection.

29 May 2012

New insights into how body's innate immunity is triggered to create effective immune response

Singapore scientists from Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI) under the Agency of Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) have for the first time, identified the molecular 'switch' that directly triggers the body's first line of defence against pathogens, more accurately known as the body's "innate immunity".

11 May 2012