New Single-Dose Dengue Fever Vaccine Shows Promise In Trial Amid Rising Cases In Latin America

The New York Times (4/11, Nolen) reports, “The outbreak of dengue fever that has unfolded in Latin America over the past three months is staggering in its scale – a million cases in Brazil in a matter of weeks, a huge spike in Argentina, a state of emergency declared in Peru, and now another, in Puerto Rico.” The situation “forewarns of a changing landscape for the disease. The mosquitoes that spread dengue thrive in densely populated cities with weak infrastructure, and in warmer and wetter environments – the type of habitat that is expanding quickly with climate change.” Fortunately, “researchers in Brazil delivered the lone shred of good news in this story with the recent announcement that a clinical trial of a new dengue vaccine, delivered in a single shot, had provided strong protection against the disease.” Those trial results have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.