Dengue fever primary prevention

Vaccine development
There is no commercially available vaccine for the dengue flavivirus. However, one of the many ongoing vaccine development programs is the Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative which was set up in 2003 with the aim of accelerating the development and introduction of dengue vaccine(s) that are affordable and accessible to poor children in endemic countries. Thai researchers are testing a dengue fever vaccine on 3,000-5,000 human volunteers within the next three years after having successfully conducted tests on animals and a small group of human volunteers. and a number of other vaccine candidates are entering phase I or II testing.

Mosquito control
Primary prevention of dengue mainly resides in eliminating or reducing the mosquito vector for dengue. Public spraying for mosquitoes is the most important aspect of this vector. Application of larvicides such as Abate® to standing water is more effective in the long term control of mosquitoes. Initiatives to eradicate pools of standing water (such as in flowerpots) have proven useful in controlling mosquito-borne diseases. Promising new techniques have been recently reported from Oxford University on rendering the Aedes mosquito pest sterile.

Recently, researchers at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, in Brazil, have developed a world-awarded new technology to monitor and control the mosquito, using traps, chemical attractants, handheld computers and GPS georeferenced maps. The MI Dengue system can show precisely where the mosquitoes are inside the urban area, in a very short period of time.

Personal protection
Personal prevention consists of the use of mosquito nets, repellents containing NNDB or DEET, covering exposed skin, use of DEET-impregnated bednets, and avoiding endemic areas. This is also important for malaria prevention.

Potential antiviral approaches
In cell culture experiments and mice Morpholino antisense oligos have shown specific activity against Dengue virus.

The yellow fever vaccine (YF-17D) is a related Flavivirus, thus the chimeric replacement of yellow fever vaccine with dengue has been often suggested but no full scale studies have been conducted to date.

In 2002 the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis and the Singapore Economic Development board created the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD). NITD is a public-private partnership that researches neglected tropical diseases. NITD's dengue unit is researching an anti-viral drug to treat or prevent dengue fever.

In 2006, a group of Argentine scientists directed by Andrea Gamarnik discovered the molecular replication mechanism of the virus, which could be attacked by disruption of the polymerase's work.

In 2007 the World Community Grid launched a project where by computer modeling of the Dengue Fever Virus (and related viruses) thousands of small molecules are screened for their potential anti-viral properties in fighting the Dengue Fever Virus. This project by use of computer simulations seeks out medicines to directly attack the virus once a person is infected. This is a distributed process project similar to SETI@Home where the general public downloads the World Community Grid agent and the program (along with thousands of other users) screens thousands of molecules while their computer would be otherwise idle. If the user needs to use the computer the program sleeps. There are several different projects running, including a similar one screening for anti-AIDS drugs. The project covering the Dengue Fever virus is called "Discovering Dengue Drugs – Together." The software and information about the project can be found at:


 * World Community Grid web site