Preparing for a dengue fever vaccine: why Brazil’s ahead of the game

Six dengue vaccine candidates are in various stages of clinical development but developing countries will not receive the benefits if planning does not start now. Dengue fever is now endemic in more than 125 countries. Six vaccines are currently in clinical development and policymakers and global health leaders need to be ready for when they come on the market. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has called dengue fever the fastest spreading vector-borne viral disease with “epidemic potential” and “staggering” consequences. In the past 50 years, the number of reported cases has increased 30-fold. While the WHO estimates that 50-100m dengue infections occur each year, a new Nature study calculated that nearly 400m infections occurred in 2010 – four times as many as the official estimates. Transmitted by mosquitoes, dengue is a painful illness that causes severe headache, muscle and joint pain, vomiting and skin rash. In some cases, it can lead to circulatory...