WA expertise used in dengue vaccine trial

ABC News
Posted Mon Feb 9, 2009 10:52am AEDT

Health authorities in the United States will soon begin world first human trials of a vaccine for dengue fever.

A Perth-based drug company has been working with scientists in Hawaii to develop the vaccine.

Dr William Ardrey hopes the vaccine will be available in the next two to four years.

He says they will use the trials to test how many vaccines are needed and how much time should be left in between injections.

"Vaccine trials are pretty interesting because you know pretty soon whether the vaccine does or doesn't work," he said.

"What you're trying to do is challenge the patient's immune system and you can actually measure immunity, so you can tell whether these sorts of vaccines work pretty soon on."

Dr Ardrey says the scientists have manufactured a protein in the dengue virus which tells the body to develop an immunity to the disease.

"It's the latest technology where you actually find the proteins that are involved in this particular virus and challenging the immune system through this particular protein," he said.

"So you're not dealing with the actual virus itself. It's a much safer way of doing things and it's a technology that upscales.

"We can make very large amounts very very quickly, both for Australia and developing countries."

Confirmed cases of the disease in Cairns, in far north Queensland, have risen to 277 and 47 in Townsville.

Authorities say the dengue fever epidemic has also spread to the town of Port Douglas, north of Cairns.

The Cairns City Council is also treating mosquitoes in dengue prone areas in Port Douglas.

The company has spent 10 years developing the vaccine with scientists in Hawaii.

They are working with Professor Ian Frazer - who created the cervical cancer vaccine - and hope to get the vaccine into the market in the next two to four years.

The first human trials will start in the United States soon.