Hunt for Dengue Vaccine Heats Up as the Disease Burden Grows

As the number of cases reaches an all-time high, new techniques and an influx of research funds could mean this long-neglected disease will finally have a vaccine

For decades, Duane Gubler and other arbovirus experts have been warning about a looming dengue crisis. But dengue fever, transmitted most often by the bite of an infected Aedes aegypti mosquito, was often seen as an obscure, only occasionally fatal disease of tropical countries, and progress toward a vaccine and drugs to treat it has been slow.

Now, with cases exploding across Southeast Asia and the disease apparently becoming more virulent and spreading into new geographic areas, vaccine research is taking on a new urgency. "For 30 years, we've been saying a dengue vaccine might be available in the next 10 years," says Gubler, a dengue expert at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, in Honolulu. "And now, finally, it seems we may be right about that." Some long-running research is finally bearing fruit, says Gubler, and as dengue captures global attention, the pharmaceutical industry is boosting investment in both traditional and novel vaccine technologies. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle, Washington, has chipped in a $55 million, 5-year grant to set the stage for phase III trials, which will help speed candidate vaccines to market.

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