Health minister warns against deadly dengue in Chik-V address

Sunday, September 28, 2014 | 7:36 PM    

KINGSTON, Jamaica – The health minister, Dr Fenton Ferguson, has warned the public to safeguard against dengue virus, which is also spread by the aedes aegypti mosquito.

Ferguson issued the warning during a national address Sunday night on the spread of chikungunya virus.

“Be reminded that dengue is also spread by the aedes aegypti mosquito and is more serious than chikungunya, as the death rate is much higher,” said Ferguson.

He added: “Deaths from chikungunya are very rare and usually occur in persons with other illnesses, especially chronic illnesses. The death rate from chikungunya is less than one per cent compared to dengue which is 1-5 per cent and influenza which kills millions each year. In 2012, we had a total of 5,929 suspected dengue cases and in 2013, we had 925 cases.”

At the same time, the minister appealed to persons in high-risk groups, including pregnant women, infants, children under five years old and persons with chronic illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease, to seek medical care “immediately if they experience symptoms that could be chikungunya”.

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Health minister warns against deadly dengue in Chik-V address

Promising vaccine against dengue developed

Reports that scientists have developed the world’s first vaccine against the mosquito-borne virus, dengue fever. (Credit: Caribbean360 / Bigstock)

LONDON, England, Friday July 18, 2014 – With most of the Caribbean and about half the world’s population at risk of contracting dengue fever, reports that scientists have developed the world’s first vaccine against the mosquito-borne virus seen to work in large-scale trials comes as good news.

Research published in Britain’s Lancet medical journal indicates that over 50 percent of children who are given the vaccine are protected against the disease.

Results are reportedly even more impressive on severe forms of the disease, in which the vaccine reduces the number of people requiring hospitalisation and prevents 80 percent of cases of potentially deadly dengue haemorrhagic fever.

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Yet while experts describe the study as promising, they insist that vaccines with greater effectiveness are crucial.

Meanwhile, in this largest late-stage trial of a vaccine to date, researchers from five centres across Asia treated 6,000 children aged between two and 14 years.

At the end of two years, some 56 percent of the children were seen to have protection against the virus.

The vaccine reportedly worked best for children with certain subtypes of the virus and those with previous exposure.

There are currently no treatments to prevent dengue fever, an illness characterised by intense joint pain, high fever and severe headaches that affects more than one million people a year.

Sanofi-Pasteur, the company funding the current research, plans to apply for approval once the results of its second trial across the Caribbean and Latin America have been analysed.

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Promising vaccine against dengue developed