Meeting: “Cooperation Among First-to-Introduce Countries for Dengue Vaccines 2013 Meeting”
Dengue Vaccine Initiative (DVI); Hosted by the Ministry of Health of Brazil
April 9-11, 2013
Brasilia, Brazil

The meeting had three main objectives: 1) For developers to present status and timelines of dengue vaccine candidates under development; 2) For countries to present epidemiology data and points to consider for dengue vaccine introduction; and 3) For first-to-introduce countries to find mechanisms for collaboration in preparing introduction of dengue vaccines. Participating countries included Colombia, Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines, in addition to Brazil.
The meeting led to the identification of several areas for collaboration between countries and DVI: surveillance, regulatory pathways, modeling, strategic demand forecasting, financing, and communications.  Specific examples of follow-on collaborations were: 1) In collaboration with WHO and WHO regional offices, to standardize dengue surveillance; 2) To implement regulatory support activities such as access to knowledge and literature on dengue and dengue vaccines, facilitation of inter-agency collaborations for evaluation of dengue vaccines, National Regulatory Agency and National Immunization Technical Advisory Group coordination; 3) The application of a computer model to design the potentially most effective immunization strategies; 4) The preparation of demand forecasts that can take into account the potential limited supply; 5) The identification of resources to support the costs of the vaccine and its distribution; and 6) The development of accurate and informative communication messages to prepare communities for vaccine introduction.
The countries will meet again in October in Thailand to discuss collaborative activities to be undertaken in preparation for a dengue vaccine introduction.  The meeting will be held in conjunction with the Third International Conference on Dengue and Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever, “Global Dengue: Challenges and Promises”, which meets in Bangkok from the 21st to the 23rd of October.

Agenda and slide presentations: http://www.denguevaccines.org/news-events/cooperation-among-first-introduce-countries-dengue-vaccines-2013-meeting