The number of dengue fever infection has been increasing

Approximately 390 million people worldwide are infected with dengue fever annually, and 96 million showing symptoms[]. Over the past 20 years, the number of dengue fever infection reported to the WHO has increased tenfold, indicating the disease's growing global impact[].

This is a major obstacle of achieving SGDs

Dengue fever is classified as one of the “Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs)” and significantly hinders the achievement of “SDGs Target 3.3” []. Furthermore, the spread of dengue fever causes economic losses, obstructing the realization of “SDGs Target 10.2”[].

Dengue virus is transmitted by mosquitos

Dengue fever is an infectious disease caused by the dengue virus and transmitted by mosquitoes.

Dengue virus has four serotypes

There are four different types of the dengue virus. If a person gets infected with a different type after recovering from one, there’s a higher risk of developing severe dengue fever. Severe dengue fever can lead to death[].

Three things needed to reduce the number of dengue fever infection

• promote vaccination

• control the mosquitoes that transmit the disease

• raise awareness among residents in affected areas[]

Surveillance is necessary to achieve all of these

In order to implement vaccination distribution, mosquito control, and awareness raising among residents at a high level, We need data from surveillance, but current methods for surveillance have issues, so it's not done enough.

Problems with existing test methods for surveillance

• Low test efficiency due to low throughput

• High cost of testing, not suitable for surveillance

• Difficult to identify even dengue serotypes

Our solution

Our project “STAND UP: Swift Analysis Neutralizing Dengue for the Upliftment of Public Health” includes two dengue fever test methods. The first one, “CFNT: Cell Fluorescence Neutralization Test”, can evaluate the number of neutralizing antibodies against dengue fever. The second one, “3D-PCR”, allows identifying recent dengue fever infections.

Key points of our test methods

• High throughput

• Low cost

• High sensitivity

Our Goal

We aim to gather and open-source data from surveillance using CFNT and 3D-PCR. This data will enhance efforts to promote vaccination, control mosquitoes, and raise dengue fever awareness. By making the data widely accessible, we anticipate heightened global efforts against dengue and a shift in its perception from a neglected disease to a recognized one.