NanoViricides, Inc., announced
today that its Dengue virus therapeutics program is advancing at an
accelerated pace.
Dengue fever is gaining a firmer foothold in southern Texas,
putting residents at risk for the most dangerous form of the disease,
dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) says in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on
August 10th. Doctors and health officials in parts of south Texas
should be on the lookout for dengue fever, a tropical virus that can
cause internal bleeding and death, CDC said on Aug 9th.
“The US is at significant risk because the Aedes
Aegypti mosquito, which carries the Dengue virus, can easily cross
borders, and because dengue virus is becoming endemic in Puerto Rico,
Mexico, and Central America,” said Dr. Eugene Seymour, MD,
MPH, CEO of NanoViricides, Inc.
DHF cases have risen to an alarming 25% of dengue fever cases,
with overall dengue cases having increased by more than 600 percent in
Mexico since 2001, according to Mexico's Public Health Department,
reports Mark Stevenson of Associated Press. Also, the Puerto Rican
Health Department has recently reported that Dengue has reached
epidemic proportions there. The situation is even more acute in Asia
with over 33,000 cases of Dengue reported in Vietnam. In addition,
Singapore and India are among countries reporting recent outbreaks of
Dengue. Globally, there are an estimated 50 to 100 million cases of
dengue fever (DF) and several hundred thousand cases of dengue
hemorrhagic fever (DHF) per year, according to CDC.
“Therapeutics against Dengue are gaining increased
importance because the risk of developing the fatal form, DHF, has been
increasing rapidly worldwide, as a significant portion of the world
population has had an initial infection with the Dengue
virus,” said Dr. Anil R. Diwan, President, NanoViricides,
Inc. DHF develops primarily in persons reinfected with one of the three
remaining dengue viral subtypes, after a previous dengue infection.
NanoViricides, Inc. is preparing to ship dengue-specific as
well as broad-spectrum nanoviricides for preclinical testing to Walter
Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) within the next several weeks
pursuant to a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA)
signed earlier this year. The dengue-specific ligands are derived from
work done by WRAIR scientists.
The new spending authority Defense authorization bill now
making its way through Congress designates $5 million for
NanoViricides, Inc.'s drug development against Dengue fever, according
to a recent announcement by the Washington office of Senator Joseph
Lieberman.