A clinical trial supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is testing an experimental treatment designed to help people suffering the effects of dengue, a mosquito-borne viral disease. The study is supported by NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and will involve exposing adult volunteers to a weakened strain of dengue virus that causes a mild form of the disease and administering an investigational therapeutic at various doses to assess its safety and ability to lessen symptoms.
Dengue is transmitted via infected Aedes mosquitoes and sickens as many as 400 million people each year, primarily in tropical and subtropical parts of the world, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2024, dengue cases surged to record levels in the Americas with local U.S. transmission reported in Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, and Texas. Dengue is endemic in Puerto Rico, which reported nearly 1,500 cases last year. Most people with dengue do not develop symptoms, but those who do commonly experience severe headache and body aches, nausea and vomiting, fever and rash. One in 20 people who get sick with dengue progress to severe illness, which may lead to shock, internal bleeding, and death. There is currently no Food and Drug Administration-approved treatment for dengue.