Thousands of dengue cases are reported every year in India and many people lose their lives due to the virus. A new multidisciplinary study by a team from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has revealed some new details about the virus and how the dengue virus has evolved over the past six decades. The study also pointed to an urgent need for a vaccine for dengue virus.
The team of researchers conducted a computational analysis which showed that the virus has grown exponentially over the past 50 years. An increase in the spread of virus cases has been observed especially around the South-East Asian countries.
“Reported dengue cases In 2018 in India has grown more than 25 times (three year average) since 2002. All the four geographical regions, namely- North, East, South and West-Central India, show periodic increase in dengue cases as well as deaths in 2-4 years. Comparing all published dengue sequences from India till 2018, we find that all four dengue serotypes are co-circulating in the country since 2000.
Evolution of Dengue Virus:
The researchers studied the mutations in the four serotypes of the dengue virus and looked at how they changed from their ancestral sequence.
During the research, 408 genetic sequences of Indian dengue were examined and the results showed that the dengue virus has changed in a very complex way. Virus strains are changing their patterns and strains which were not very prevalent in India earlier are spreading rapidly.
For example, the study noted that till 2012, Dengue 1 and Dengue 3 were the dominant strains in India, but over the years the situation changed with the rapid spread of Dengue 2 virus and Dengue 4 also making its way into the region. Creating a separate space for ,
Research shows that if a person is infected with two types of the virus at the same time, the symptoms of dengue virus can be severe. After primary infection with any strain of virus, antibodies also provide protection against other strains for 2–3 years, but cross-serotype protection is lost after that.
The study has found that the new strains of the virus are very different from their ancestral sequence and there is an urgent need to develop a vaccine against dengue virus.
Currently, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is conducting Phase III trials of a vaccine candidate.
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