The Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative Introduces www.DengueWatch.org - a News hub for Tracking Dengue Fever Epidemics Worldwide

Seoul, March 9, 2010 (ots/PRNewswire) - PDVI (Pediatric Dengue Vaccine
Initiative), a program of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI)
funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, announces today the
launch of http://www.denguewatch.org, a news hub for tracking dengue
fever epidemics worldwide. Breaking news articles from reliable
sources are displayed on a world map according to the location of
dengue outbreaks. Dengue fever is endemic in over 100 countries and
puts at risk half of the world's population.

"Denguewatch.org is an important public health tool providing
instant access to news regarding dengue fever epidemics and their
impact on global health," said Dr. John Clemens, IVI Director
General, and PDVI Acting Director. "We believe that news reports
about dengue hot spots and other important developments can help
public health officials track the spread and understand the growing
importance of this disease."

Denguewatch.org reports worldwide news alerts provided by
Healthmap.org, a freely available Web site. HealthMap is a system
based at Children's Hospital Boston, Massachusetts in collaboration
with Harvard Medical School, MIT Media Lab and the Harvard-MIT
Division of Health Sciences and Technology which integrates outbreak
data of varying reliability, ranging from news sources (such as
Google News) to curated personal accounts (such as ProMED) to
validated official alerts (such as World Health Organization). Dengue
news is aggregated and displayed by location for user-friendly access
to the original alert.

"The Internet has become a critical medium for clinicians, public
health practitioners, and the public seeking health information,"
said John S. Brownstein, Ph.D., co-founder of Healthmap.org with
Clark Freifeld, "We are proud to collaborate with PDVI for
http://www.denguewatch.org and we believe it can help foster
surveillance and prevention of dengue fever worldwide."

Dengue: a global health threat

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease caused by four types of
dengue viruses (type 1 to 4). Overall, the disease is a potential
threat for almost half of the world's population. Of the estimated
230 million people infected annually, two million, mostly children,
develop dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), a severe form of the
disease[1]. DHF is a leading cause of hospitalization, placing
tremendous pressure on strained medical resources.

Dengue fever occurs mostly in tropical and subtropical countries
in Asia and Latin America and is spreading to new parts of the globe
each year. In addition, dengue affects countries such as Australia
(Queensland) and the United States (Puerto Rico, Texas-Mexico border,
Hawaii and the US-affiliated Pacific Islands). A substantial number
of people travelling to endemic regions are also infected each year.

Expansion of dengue fever is driven by increased movement of
people[2], massive unplanned urbanization, added to a lack of
effective mosquito control[3]. Dengue prevention requires fostering a
thorough knowledge of the disease.

About PDVI

The Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative, a program of the
International Vaccine Institute (IVI) founded in 2001, aims to reduce
the burden of dengue disease by accelerating the development,
evaluation and introduction of affordable dengue vaccines. PDVI works
with public and private partners to accelerate the development and
introduction of a dengue vaccine that is safe, effective and
affordable for children in endemic countries. PDVI is funded by the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. For more information, please visit
our website: http://www.pdvi.org

About the IVI

The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) is the world's only
international organization devoted exclusively to developing and
introducing new and improved vaccines for the world's poorest people,
especially children in developing countries. Established as an
initiative of the United Nations Development Program in 1997, the IVI
operates under a treaty signed by 40 countries and the World Health
Organization. IVI conducts research in more than 20 countries in
Asia, Africa and Latin America on vaccines against diarrheal
infections, bacterial meningitis and pneumonia, Japanese
encephalitis, dengue fever and more. For further information, please
visit: http://www.ivi.int

---------------------------------

[1] Beatty M Letson GW Margolis HS, Estimating the global burden
of dengue., Am J Trop Med Hygiene 81, 5 :231 2009

[2] Mackenzie JS, Gubler DJ, Petersen LR. Nat Med 2004 Dec; 10
(12 Supll) :S98-109

[3] Mackenzie JS, Gubler DJ, Petersen LR. Nat Med 2004 Dec; 10
(12 Supll) :S98-109

ots Originaltext: Pediatric Dengue Vaccine Initiative (PDVI)
Im Internet recherchierbar: http://www.presseportal.de

Contact:
CONTACT: IVI Contact: Don Douglas, Senior Program Officer,
PediatricDengue Vaccine Initiative, ddouglas@pdvi.org; Tae Kyung
Byun, PublicAwareness/Advocacy Officer, International Vaccine
Institute, tkbyun@ivi.int