The Partnership for Dengue Control (PDC) is launching a series of 10 short films addressing the spread of dengue in developing countries in Asia and Latin America, but also in newly affected areas like the Southern United States.
The films cover major issues such as the difficulties encountered in developing a vaccine and the need for an integrated approach to combat the virus. The films feature experts from research centers and people fighting dengue in the field.
Through this campaign, PDC’s aim is to further awareness and start a global discussion between dengue experts and public and private stakeholders.
The films will be released on the PDC website, Youtube and Twitter starting June 1st and over a period of 5 weeks.
Join the discussion on Twitter @PDCdengue
At the “Summit on Dengue Immune Correlates of Protection”, held at Les Pensières in Annecy, France, on March 8-9, 2016, leading dengue experts from diverse fields came together to (i) discuss the current understanding of the immune response to and protection from dengue virus infection, (ii) identify key unanswered questions, (iii) discuss potential “reporting standards” for immune correlates data and plans for comparison of results across assays/consortia, and (iv) propose a Research Agenda for investigation of dengue immune correlates.
Specific sessions focused on: definitions of immune correlates for infectious diseases and how immune correlates have been established for other diseases; the knowledge of dengue immunity and immune correlates based on cohort studies in endemic areas and vaccine trials; challenges to defining immune correlates based on our understanding of the virus and current tools for measuring immunity; the role of cell-mediated immunity in protection and pathogenesis; and recommendations based on current vaccine trial data and upcoming vaccine candidates.
The sessions were congenial and collaborative, and began with a plenary introducing the theme, presentations on key topics to spark discussion, and small working group sessions to develop consensus research priorities for the dengue community. These conclusions will be written up in a report entitled, “State-of-the-art and research agenda for correlates of immunity for dengue”.
Participants also organized standing working committees for specific projects, including development of panels of reference reagents (e.g., viruses and sera); standardization of neutralization assays; the role of cellular immunology; next-gen B cell and antibody assays; and cross-cohort comparisons that will calibrate immune measures and analysis approaches to allow direct comparison of the epidemiological context of each site.
Eva Harris PhD
Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology
Director, Center for Global Public Health
UC Berkeley School of Public Health
A long awaited tool for dengue prevention and control has finally become available in three endemic countries. During the month of December, health authorities in Mexico, the Philippines and Brazil granted marketing authorization for the first dengue vaccine.
The Sanofi Pasteur tetravalent dengue vaccine is intended for the prevention of the disease caused by all four dengue virus serotypes in individuals aged 9 to 45 living in endemic areas. Sanofi Pasteur licensed the Dengvaxia® vaccine after 20 years of research and development. Their clinical development program involved over 40,000 people of different ages, who lived in diverse geographic and epidemiological settings in 15 countries.
The Partnership for Dengue Control (PDC), a multi-sponsored alliance hosted by Fondation Mérieux, considers a dengue vaccine to be an essential part of the integrated approach needed to lower the burden of dengue fever globally, which the WHO estimates at nearly 400 million infections each year.1 PDC encourages adopter countries to implement vaccination programs with strong and careful evaluation of the impact of immunization on disease incidence and the safety of the vaccine under specific and controlled conditions for monitoring the long term benefit/risk ratio.
In 2015, over 1.4 million Brazilian citizens were reportedly ill with dengue virus.2 The Philippines has an estimated annual average of 842,867 clinically diagnosed dengue cases and researchers in Mexico report an annual average of about 139,000 cases.3, 4
Introducing the new vaccine in these high-risk populations, along with other disease prevention approaches, has the potential to lower virus transmission risk.
Such a complex public health challenge requires combinations of interventions. PDC believes that vaccines will need to be integrated with vector control to maximize their public health impact. Along with vaccines, PDC partners are looking forward to other tools and approaches becoming available in the next five years, such as:
- new insecticides and other mosquito control innovations
- diagnostic tools and improved surveillance methods
- antiviral drugs to treat dengue
- improved clinical management strategies
PDC will continue to monitor the rapidly changing dengue prevention landscape. Dengue vaccines from other research institutions and companies are also in the pipeline, as are new paradigms for vector control.5 The new tools that are expected to come to the market in the near future will enhance the available portfolio for dengue prevention.
- WHO Dengue and severe dengue fact sheet #117
- Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde − Ministério da Saúde. Epidemiological Bulletin – Volume 46 – No. 24-2015 – Monitoring of cases of dengue fever and chikungunya. Epidemiological Week 36, 2015.
- Frances E. Edillo, Yara A. Halasa, Francisco M. Largo, Jonathan Neil V. Erasmo, Naomi B. Amoin, Maria Theresa P. Alera, In-Kyu Yoon, Arturo C. Alcantara, and Donald S. Shepard. Economic Cost and Burden of Dengue in the Philippines. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. 2015 Feb 4; 92(2): 360–366
- Undurraga EA, Betancourt-Cravioto M, Ramos-Castañeda J, Martínez-Vega R, Méndez-Galván J, Gubler DJ, Guzmán MG, Halstead SB, Harris E, Kuri-Morales P, Tapia-Conyer R, Shepard DS. Economic and disease burden of dengue in Mexico. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. 2015 Mar 18;9(3):e0003547.
- Achee, N.L., F. Gould, T.A. Perkins, R.C. Reiner, Jr., A.C. Morrison, S.A. Ritchie, D.J. Gubler, R. Teyssou, and T.W. Scott. 2015. A Critical Assessment of Vector Control for Dengue Prevention. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. 9: e0003655.
