IVI (International Vaccine Institute) announced the launch of the Dengue Vaccine Initiative (DVI), in collaboration with the Sabin Vaccine Institute, the Johns Hopkins University, and the World Health Organization “to support development of vaccines to control dengue fever, a widespread and expanding hemorrhagic fever that is endemic in most tropical and subtropical regions of the world.” DVI is supported by a US$6.9 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and “will accelerate the development and utilization of safe, affordable and broadly protective vaccines to combat dengue, a mosquito-borne infection which causes severe flu-like symptoms, and its potentially lethal complication dengue hemorrhagic fever, characterized by bleeding, plasma fluid leakage, and in severe cases shock and death.” Each year, an estimated 2 million people with dengue hemorrhagic fever require hospitalization representing a significant burden on the fragile healthcare systems of developing and endemic nations.
Dr. John Clemens, Director-General of IVI, commented, “We are extremely grateful for the Gates Foundation’s continued support of our critical work to promote the development of life-saving dengue vaccines and ensure their effective introduction. Dengue is an infection whose burden has increased sharply around the world. The global dengue community is on the eve of many important breakthroughs in dengue research and development, and I believe that we’ll make significant progress in controlling dengue within the decade.”
vaccines and global health :: ethics and policy 