Dengue fever is one of the most widespread tropical diseases in the world. It kills roughly 24,000 people mostly children and infects up to 100 million each year.
In the Philippines, the National Epidemiology Center reports that dengue accounted for 407 deaths and 43,938 infections in 2007, making it the worst dengue year for the country.
However dreadful, dengue may soon become preventable thanks to a vacine being developed by scientists in the pharmaceutical industry.
Promising dengue vaccine
While there is still no vaccine for dengue, the tetravalent or four-component dengue candidate vaccine generated a strong antibody response against all four serotypes of the virus responsible for dengue fever in 100 percent of adults who participated in a United States clinical trial.
This major research and development breakthrough prompted scientists to immediately expand ongoing clinical trials in Asia and Latin America this year. Scientists are expected to submit the vaccine to health authorities for registration in 2012.
The tetravalent dengue candidate vaccine is based on a new technology incorporating the protein envelopes that provide immunity against the four virus types responsible for dengue fever and the most severe forms of the disease----dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome.
Dengue is a mosquito-borne disease characterized by fever, rash, headache and muscle aches. DHF, on the other hand, is a severe and potentially fatal form of dengue that is a leading cause of hospitalization among children. DHF causes hemorrhage, shock and, if left untreated, death in up to 15% of cases.
Scourge from a mosquito bite
Dengue is caused by four distinct but closely related viruses (serotypes 1 - 4) that are transmitted by the bite of the Aedes aegytpi mosquito. Recovery from infection caused by one virus type provides lifelong immunity against that serotype, but only partial and transient protection against subsequent infection by the otherthree serotypes.
Soon: Global disease prevention
Developing an efficient tetravalent vaccine and making it available to people living in countries where the dengue fever is prevalent is therefore the first step to achieving global prevention of the disease and saving countless lives.
Around the world, healthcare companies have joined forces with research organizations to better understand and manage dengue infection and ultimately minimize its incidence.
In addition to improving diagnosis of dengue, efforts of these partnerships could also be instrumental in speeding up the discovery of an anti-viral drug effective against the dengue virus.
