The symptoms of Dengue occur due to the increased leaking of fluid from capillaries, which if severe can lead to shock. The researchers at the Centre for Dengue Research (CDR) have identified a potential mediator that causes such vascular leakage and are currently in the process of conducting a clinical trial to determine the efficacy of a drug in the treatment of Dengue. In addition, they are currently conducting a large scale research project involving over 1500 individuals in the community, the main aim of which is to find out the protective immune responses to Dengue. This information will be vital for the development of a Dengue vaccine. The study is in its second year.
Apart from work on Dengue pathogenesis and immune responses, the researchers have also developed a mobile application for real time tracking of Dengue epidemics. A pilot study in the Dehiwala MOH Division to digitalise all addresses of Dengue patients from 2010 to 2014 October, in order to determine geo-spatial factors responsible for Dengue transmission, has just been completed. The Mobile Technology Application developed by the CDR-GIS Team is soon to be launched. The Google Asia Conference of Web Application Developers, held in Sri Lanka in September 2014, has identified the work of CDR as most innovative and selected the proposal on Mobile Application Development for Dengue Control. Apart from the above activities, research work of the team has been published in 3 high impact factor international journals, and presented at 6 conferences, winning one international and two local awards for the year 2014.
Read more – http://www.cdrsrilanka.com
