Funding: Deadly dengue

4 April 2006

Research on the immune response to the dengue virus may reveal why some people show mild symptoms while others suffer the potentially deadly dengue haemorrhagic fever.

Around 2.5 billion people are at risk from dengue in tropical and subtropical countries, with 50 million infections occurring each year.

Infection with the dengue virus is not normally life-threatening, but in a minority of cases the potentially deadly dengue haemorrhagic fever ensues. It seems to develop when people have had previous dengue infections, suggesting that pre-existing immunity is actually harmful rather than protective.

Professor Gavin Screaton (Imperial College London) and colleagues in Thailand will study the T-cell response to different strains of dengue, to identify the immunological mechanisms underlying severe disease. The work is particularly important for vaccine strategies, as any vaccine providing less than 100 per cent protection could actually predispose people to serious disease.