Dengue vaccine

Dengue fever is an infectious disease caused by the dengue virus. It is an acute disease caused by mosquito bites. It is a highly prevalent disease in Southeast Asia. The child mortality rate is relatively high and it has a certain incubation period. my country and Singapore have jointly developed a vaccine against dengue fever, which has been successful in clinical practice. This has played a very important role in preventing dengue fever.

Dengue vaccine

Scientists from Singapore and China have collaborated to develop a new vaccine to fight dengue fever. If the clinical trials are successful, it will become the first vaccine that can protect against all four common subtypes of dengue fever at the same time. The research was conducted in collaboration between the Singapore Immunology Group under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, the Novartis Institute of Tropical Diseases Singapore and the Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences.

Mode of transmission

Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are the main vectors of dengue fever. In Southeast Asia and Hainan Province, China, the main mosquito is Aedes aegypti; in the Pacific Islands and Guangdong Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, the main mosquito is Aedes albopictus. Female Aedes mosquitoes bite and suck blood during the day. After the Aedes mosquito sucks in blood infected with the dengue virus, the virus replicates in its salivary glands and nerve cells. The mosquito becomes capable of transmitting the virus 10 days after sucking blood, and the infectious period can be as long as 174 days. Aedes mosquitoes are both the vectors of dengue fever and the reservoir hosts of dengue virus, because female Aedes mosquitoes can pass dengue virus to their offspring through eggs. Dengue virus has been isolated in some Culex pipiens and Culex tritaeniorhynchus, but their density peaks did not coincide with the peaks of dengue fever epidemics. Therefore, they are not important vectors of dengue fever.

Susceptible population

In new epidemic areas, the general population is susceptible, but the disease mainly occurs in adults. In endemic areas, specific antibodies against dengue virus can be detected in the serum of almost all local adult residents, so the disease is most common in children. After the owner is infected with dengue virus, he or she will develop immunity to infection with the same type of dengue virus, which can last for several years. He or she will also have immunity to infection with a different type of dengue virus for more than one year. There is also a certain cross-immunity to other members of the Flavivirus genus, such as Japanese encephalitis virus and St. Louis encephalitis virus.