The U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (USAMRMC) and Upstate Medical University in New York have partnered to create a vaccine that will protect people from dengue fever.
This development, called the dengue human infection model (DHIM), requires an investment amounting to $12 million from the USAMRMC. Researchers must understand DHIM to be able to create an immune response against the virus.
The grant will be spread through more than three years of clinical trials that will be regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and will involve healthy adults from 18 to 45.
“This effort is re-tooling a century-old method of addressing a global health problem for which there is no solution currently available,” Col. Stephen Thomas, of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, said.
Approximately half of the population around the world is affected by dengue fever, which is spread through the bites of mosquitoes infected with the virus.
“The development of a safe and effective dengue vaccine is of particular importance to the military in its efforts to protect U.S. Service Members who are deployed to dengue endemic regions,” Lou Jasper, product manager for the Dengue Vaccine Program in the Pharmaceutical Systems Program Management Office of the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity, said.
