Latest dengue Stories

With the help of a warning system which measures the risk of dengue incidence using precipitation and air temperature, it is possible to forecast the outbreak of dengue fever up to 16 weeks in advance. This is what Yien Ling Hii concludes in the dissertation she is defending at Umeå University on 3 May. Dengue fever is an infectious disease caused by virus and transmitted to persons by mosquitoes. A person contracted dengue fever usually shows symptoms including sudden spike of high...

New data on T cells' protective role suggests need for new approach to dengue vaccine design As efforts to create a strong and effective vaccine for the dreaded dengue virus continue to hit snags, a new study from researchers at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology offers surprising evidence that suggests the need for a revamped approach to dengue vaccine design. The finding runs counter to current scientific understanding of the key cells that need to be induced to develop...

Researchers have discovered that rising temperature induces key changes in the dengue virus when it enters its human host, and the findings represent a new approach for designing vaccines against the aggressive mosquito-borne pathogen. The researchers found that the dengue virus particles swell slightly and take on a bumpy appearance when heated to human body temperature, exposing "epitopes," or regions where antibodies could attach to neutralize the virus. The discovery is significant...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Nearly 400 million people are infected with dengue fever each year, meaning that the world’s fastest-spreading tropical illness is affecting three times more people than the World Health Organization (WHO) had previously estimated. Following several years of research, experts from the University of Oxford and the Wellcome Trust revealed those statistics, as well as a detailed map of regions affected by the mosquito-borne virus,...

A candidate dengue vaccine developed by scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has been found to be safe and to stimulate a strong immune response in most vaccine recipients, according to results from an early-stage clinical trial sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH. The trial results were published online on January 17 in the Journal of Infectious Diseases. Dengue fever, prevalent in many tropical and subtropical...

SOUTH PLAINFIELD, N.J., Oct. 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- PTC Therapeutics, Inc. (PTC) today announced the receipt of a $1 million grant award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to discover antiviral agents for the treatment of dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease that is a leading cause of illness and death in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. The one-year grant will support research into...

LONDON, September 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Releases of Oxitec's genetically modified mosquitoes achieved an 80% reduction of a local mosquito population in the Cayman Islands, as described today in the prestigious international scientific journal Nature Biotechnology. A paper[1] by the Cayman Islands Mosquito Research and Control Unit (MRCU) and Oxitec reports a successful demonstration of Oxitec's innovative approach to controlling the Aedes aegypti mosquito - the...

New study published in Vaccine indicates cost of 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. These findings...

Test diagnoses dengue faster using existing flu diagnosis equipment ATLANTA, June 20, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- 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...

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. While it is established that immunity can be an important factor in the large-scale distribution of disease, this study demonstrates that local variation at spatial scales of just a few hundred meters can significantly alter the risk of infection, even in a highly mobile and dense urban population with significant immunity....