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What is Dengue? |
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Dengue fever is a disease caused by the dengue single-stranded RNA flavivirus. It is spread by Aedes mosquitoes and is endemic to the tropical regions. The virus circulates as four immunologically distinct serotypes with large genetic diversity. Despite this diversity dengue fever is normally characterized by similar symptoms: fever, joint pain and vascular leakage. |
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Why is Dengue Important? |
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The global burden of dengue has increased dramatically in recent decades, and it is currently classified as an emerging or re-emerging infectious disease by the WHO. Dengue fever (DF) and dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF)/dengue shock syndrome (DSS) occur in over 100 countries, with more than 2.5 billion people at risk and an estimated 50 million infection per year. The major disease burden is found in south-east Asia and the western Pacific, with increased reporting of DF/DHF in the Americas. Unlike DF which is more severe in adults in whom incapacitating muscle, joint and bone pain ("break-bone fever') are common, DHF occurs mostly in children under the age of 16 years and is characterized by signature features of thrombocytopenia and vascular leakage. While DF is known as a non-fatal or rarely fatal disease, DHF is associated with mortality because of its tendency to develop into a fatal shock-- dengue shock syndrome (DSS). The treatment of DSS is a medical emergency that requires a well-trained medical team, without which the case fatality rate would be higher than the currently estimated 1-5% (of DHF cases). |
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What is Dengue Info? |
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DengueInfo is an effort to collect information about the dengue virus and disease into a central portal to facilitate dengue researchers from several disciplines such as drug discovery, vaccine development, epidemiology and comparative genomics. The database currently holds all the dengue genome sequences from Genbank and where available also the associated clinical information. The database also serves as link to global information on dengue eg. WHO, CDC, PubMed, News etc.
DengueInfo is a collaboration between NITD and the Genome Institute of Singapore |
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What is Being Done About Dengue? |
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There is currently no treatment for DF/DHF per se, only supportive care. Dengue prevention is currently limited to control of the mosquito vector. A dengue vaccine has been on the drawing board for close to three decades but its development has been hampered until recently by lack of funding. Additional complexity arises from the existence of multiple serotypes. These are not cross neutralizing and may lead to antibody dependent enhancement. To address the lack of treatment for dengue, the Bill and Melinda Gates funded Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative (PDVI) has appointed many leading academic laboratories to conduct research into vaccine safety and testing. Taking a different approach, Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD) located at the Biopolis in Singapore is carrying out intensive research to find small molecule inhibitors of dengue viral targets such as the virus encoded protease, helicase or polymerase in order to reduce viral load during dengue infection. Field studies have shown that increased viremia can be directly correlated with severe dengue diseases (DHF/DSS), whereas by comparison patients suffering from classical dengue fever appear to have a lower viral load.
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