VECTOR-BORNE DISEASES: DENGUE

Vector-borne diseases are human diseases caused by vector-borne diseases such as

parasites, viruses and bacteriai. More than 700,000 deaths a year are caused by malaria,
dengue, schistosomiasis, human African trypanosomiasis, leishmaniosis, chagas disease,
yellow fever, and onchocercoses. In tropical and subtropical countries, the widespread of
these diseases are greater, and it impacts the poorer people more. Since 2014, large
epidemic outbreaks reportedly affected people, claimed lives and disrupted health care
services in many countries: dengue, measles, chikungunya, yellow fever and Zika. Other
diseases like Chikungunya, leishmaniasis and filariasis cause chronic discomfort, lifetime
morbidity, incapacity and occasional stigma.

Dengue has recently been reclassified by the WHO (World Health Organization) due to
issues when applying the old clinical terms ii. The latest recommendations focus on disease
incidence and cases are categorised as dengue, with no symptoms of warning on dengue
and severe cases of it. Severe dengue is characterised as extremely impacted patients with
strong plasma leaking, serious bleeding or organ involvement. The new classification system
stresses that possible signs should be identified early. Latest findings thus show a higher
delicacy with the revised classificationiii. In order to prevent hospitalizations in particular in
hyperendemic environments, early prediction is vital.

While there is no registered dengue vaccine yet, several vaccine potentials have been
created. Live attenuated virus vaccines, live chemistry, inactivated virus, live recombinant,
DNA, or sub-unit vaccines are all used iv. Live viral vaccinations were carried out in clinical
trials, but issues occured, such as uneven immunogenicity among four tetravalent
formulations and viral involvement among the four serotypes.

In conclusion, essential elements in the production of dengue vaccines include common

factors such as immunogenicity, reactogenicity and protective effectiveness. Ideally these
dimensions should be tempered by cost and stability considerations.
Referencing
i
CIESIN (Center for International Earth Science Information Network). Changes in the incidence of vector-borne
diseases attributable to climate change. 2007. http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu/TG/HH/veclev2.html.
ii
WHO (World Health Organization). Vector-borne diseases. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2020.
https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/vector-borne-diseases
iii
Blaney JE Jr, Sathe NS, Hanson CT, Firestone CY, Murphy BR, Whitehead SS:Vaccine candidates for dengue virus type
1 (DEN1) generated by replacement of the structural genes of rDEN4 and rDEN4Delta30 with those of DEN1.Virol
J2007,4:23.
iv
Sun W, Edelman R, Kanesa-Thasan N, Eckels KH, Putnak JR, King AD, HoungHS, Tang D, Scherer JM, Hoke CH Jr, Innis
BL:Vaccination of human volunteers with monovalent and tetravalent live-attenuated denguevaccine candidates.Am J
Trop Med Hyg2003,69:24–31.