Innovative tools and strategies for surveillance and ...denguetools.com/DT Newsletter Issue 2rev.pdf · Over the months, number of smaller working group meetings, field trip and workshops

www.denguetools.net DengueTools Newsletter – Issue 2, Oct.2014

The project is funded under the Health theme of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission, Grant Agreement No. 282589 (1)

Welcome to DengueTools second newsletter!

The last newsletter was published in June 2013. A lot has happened since then: more meetings, more publications along with conference presentations, press releases, new coverage and more. This second newsletter gives a brief overview of the major events and scientific contribution of the period since the first one. DengueTools (DT) has filled its second periodic report and submitted to the Commission in Oct 2014.

The Project has completed 36 months of action and is now entering its last year, with a possibility of six months extension with no extra cost; all partners are now bracing for the final rush to make the most of this exciting and fruitful project.

DT has three research areas and 12 work packages where we bring together the expertise, skills and leadership of 14 partners from around the world (9 from Europe, 4 from Asia and 1 from South America). A highly talented group of experts form this consortium and their skill sets range from epidemiology, economics, laboratory diagnostics, entomology, environmental science, mathematical modelling to clinical. The Centre for Global Health Research (UCGHR) at Umeå University, Sweden is the coordinating institute for this Project.

Innovative tools and strategies for surveillance and control of dengue – DengueTools

Upcoming events of interest in 2014-15: New Orleans, USA – Nov 2‐6, 2014: 63rd Annual Meeting of the

American Society Tropical Medicine Hygiene (ASTMH). http://www.astmh.org

Basel, Switzerland – Sept 6‐10, 2015: 9th European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health (ECTMIH) www.ectmihbasel2015.ch

Combined with DT annual meeting, Sept 2015



Since June 2013 DengueTools had two annual general assemblies attended by all partners.

The 2013 general assembly taking place in Negombo, Sri Lanka, was preceded by a special symposium organized in collaboration with the Sri Lankan Epidemiological Unit (Partner 2) and entitled “Dengue: The Way Forward” where eight DT members gave a presentation.

The 2014 meeting taking place in London, UK, was followed by a “3D” multi‐EU consortium workshop on ‘Mathematical Modeling for Dengue’ coordinated by Prof. Eduardo Massad of DengueTools (Partner 14) at Royal Society of Medicine.

DT Executive Board met three times during this period on Oct 16th 2013, Feb 2nd 2014 and May 19th 2014. These meetings of eight board members are held to discuss administrative, ethical and scientific issues and evaluate progress of the overall project.

Over the months, number of smaller working group meetings, field trip and workshops were undertaken by consortium members to carry on the work plan tasks and milestones.

The meetings and workshops are presented in more details below, in chronological order.

September 2013 - Copenhagen, Denmark Interim Project Review by European Commission Sept 9th

The Project undertook its Interim Review on September 9, 2013 in Copenhagen. Along with the then newly appointed EU Scientific Officer, Inmaculada Penaz Jimenez, two other external expert reviewers, Elena A Levashina and Herve Zeller jointly evaluated the first periodic report in a 90 minute session. Summaries of all work packages were presented by the respective leader or collaborating partner.

Paul Reiter, among others, presenting to the EU scientific officers.

Main meetings and workshops



8th European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health (ECTMIH) Sept 10th-13th

A number of DT partners attended the ECTMIH meeting and presented their work. It was also the opportunity to meet partners from the “3D”, the other EU‐funded dengue consortia, as a special session on dengue had been conjointly organized: “Meet the three EU‐funded Dengue Consortia: IDAMS–DENFREE–DengueTools” (Sept 11th).

Natasha Murray, Heidelberg University Master student, presented her work at the ECTMIH on acceptance of impregnated school Uniforms in

Thailand.



October 2013 - Negombo, Sri Lanka International Symposium “Dengue: The Way Forward” - Oct 16th

An international symposium organized in collaboration with the Sri Lankan Epidemiological Unit (Partner 1) was an excellent opportunity for DT partners to meet Sri Lankan professionals involved in dengue control and research and learn and discuss about the dengue situation before the DT general assembly.

From left to right (work package indicated for DengueTools partners): Lakkumar Fernando, clinician Negombo; Kevin Gorman, Oxitec (WP3); Yesim Tozan, Heidelberg University (WP11); Valérie Louis, Heidelberg University (WP10); P.G. Mahipala; Paul Reiter, Pasteur Institute (WP7); Peter Byass, Umeå Universiy (WP9); Tissa Vitharana, Colombo, Sri Lanka; Maithripala Sirisena, Minister of Health; Annelies Wilder‐Smith, Umeå University (WP12); Nihal Jayathilake, Secretary, Ministry of Health, Colombo, Sri Lanka; Duane Gubler, Duke NUS; Paba Palihawadana, Head Epidemiological Unit; Amal Harsha De Silva; Hasitha Tissera, Epidemiological Unit (WP1).





October 2013 - Negombo, Sri Lanka

DengueTools annual general assembly - Oct 17th-19th

Front to back, left to right: 1st row: Ramesh Rathnasingham, Yesim Tozan, Raman Preet, Amal Harsha De Silva, Annelies

Wilder‐Smith, Sunethra Gunasena, Phantip Olanratmanee, Paba Palihawadana; 2nd row: S.A. Dharmawardena, Y.D. Lasantha, Kimkee Tan, Lena Mustonen, Pattamaporn Kittayapong, Valérie Louis, Jayantha Weeraman, Sazaly AbuBakar, Peter Byass; 3rd row: Wolfgang Lohr, Aruna Dharshan De Silva, LakKumar Fernando, Joacim Rocklöv, Hasitha Tissera, Kevin Gorman, Neil Thalagala; 4th row: Sanka Ranawaka, Andreas Ekholm, Grégory L’Ambert, Paul Reiter, Ananda Amarasinghe, Madhava

Gunasekera



March 2014 – Umeå, Sweden

Workshop, Research area 3

Eduardo developing new models for calculating risk of importation of dengue via travelers. WP 8 meeting

March 2014

Annelies with her PhD student Mikkel Quam in Umea enjoying the remaining snow at the end of the WP 8 meeting March

2014

Dinner during the WP 8 meeting, March 2014

Annelies, Joacim and Eduardo visiting the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC) in Stockholm in preparation for more collaborative research on the risk of dengue importation into Europe. March 2014.



September 2014 – London, UK

DengueTools annual general assembly - Sept 1 & 2

A meeting of research area 1 took place on Sept 1st

All gathered in the evening

On Sept 2nd, the plenary took place when all work package leaders along with other partners presented progress of their work packages. Scientific Advisory Board members and some invited experts also joined the day long plenary.





September 2014 – London, UK

3D dengue modeling workshop - Sept 3rd & 4th

Two of three EU‐funded dengue consortia came together in London for a modeling workshop. A special issue in a scientific journal ('Epidemiology and Infection'.) is expected as outcome. Deadline for manuscripts is Feb 2015

Efforts are still on‐going to decipher dengue



FRANCE

Entomological lab in Nice, France

Dr Saïd Boubidi Where Saïd demonstrated the creative use of

a sock in mosquito research

Oxitec personnel in Panama

Roya Haghighat‐Khah (left‐hand side) and local Panamanian staff deploying novel sticky ovitraps designs in a residential area of Nuevo Chorrillo, Panama.

Roya Haghighat‐Khah assessing sticky trap catches in the laboratory

at the Gorgas Memorial Institute, Panama.

Work in the field and labs



SRI LANKA July 2013 – Inauguration of the entomological and molecular laboratory for dengue at Medical Research Institute (MRI)

June 2014 – Dengue Partners visit to the active surveillance cohort site in Ward 33, Colombo

Dr Nimashi, Dr Hisushi, Dr. V Louis, Mr. Y. Lasantha, Mr. C. Montenegro,

Mr. Somarathne, Dr. R. Lacroix



Training at the Epidemiological Unit for use of ovitraps, sticky traps and hay infusion preparation with the entomologists of the National Dengue Control Unit (NDCU)

June 2014 With Dr Sakunthala Janaki, Entomologist NCDU, Mrs Hemantha Iddamalgoda, Mr. G.A.T. Rajalhilaka from NCDU and Dr. Renaud Lacroix (Ocitec), Dr. Valerie Louis (University Heidelberg) and Mr. Carlos Montenegro (Master student from University Heidelberg)

Sticky trap preparation

Preparation of hay infusion (with Renaud Lacroix from Oxitec)



Stick traps are recovered

Material for sticky trap study arrives at the Epidemiological Unit and is stored



Field team administering the mobility questionnaire in Ward 33 – August 2014 Anishka Arseculeratne (NYU Student) Amani Sahib (NYU Student) Nuwanthi Achala Jayathilaka (Epi Unit))

National Dengue Control Unit (NDCU), Colombo

Training for Aedes identification at the NDCU – June 2014

With Dr (Mrs) Sakunthala, Entomologist NCDU And entomologist assistants: Mrs. G.A.T. Rajathilaka Mr. Hemantha Iddamalgoda And Renaud Lacroix, Oxitec Carlos Montenegro, Valerie Louis

Visit at NCDU being rapidly renovated: Dr. Sunith

(GIS specialist), Dr. Valérie Louis, Mr. Carlos Montenegro, Dr. Sakunthala (Entomologist)

A week later



Three month later Inauguration of the new insectary and entomological lab – Oct 2014

THAILAND

Investigation of mosquito breeding sites in study schools



Potential breeding sites are investigated

Press release from Umeå University on World Health Day, 7 April, 2014 Swedish researchers map the risks of new virus epidemic in Europe Editorial in Labtimes Online, 28 April 2014 Read the article!

News in Local Swedish Television ‐ Interview with Jing Helmersson about the project (In Swedish, 7 April, 2014) Watch the tv‐news!

DengueTools in the news



A description of the work performed since the end of the last reporting period and of the main results achieved.

RESEARCH AREA 1:

WP 1 has successfully set up a laboratory‐enhanced sentinel disease surveillance system in Colombo municipality, Sri Lanka, which includes 3 hospitals and 3 outpatient settings. To date, 4539 samples have been collected and sent for further laboratory evaluation in Sri Lanka as well as to Duke‐NUS Singapore. Local capacity building in dengue PCR has been achieved. Large‐scale phylogenetic analysis of dengue viruses has been initiated in Singapore, for which we have successful sought for further funding from the National Medical Research Council in Singapore. A Sri Lankan PhD candidate was identified to work on early warning systems under the supervision of A/Prof Joacim Rocklöv. Furthermore, a dengue case classification study was conducted in adult and pediatric inpatients, and 200 patients were recruited. We also added a cohort in Ward 33 of Colombo for active surveillance with about 1500 households. Sub‐studies are being conducted in this Ward with entomological assessments, economic studies, community‐based KAP studies on vector control, and a household mobility study.

WP2: Evaluation of both the RT‐RPA and RT‐LAMP assays was completed. We found a sensitivity of 71% for RT‐LAMP and 92% for RT‐RPA. A field test was conducted during an outbreak situation to evaluate RT‐RPA against qRT‐PCR.

WP3: The Polymerase Chain Displacement Reaction (PCDR) was successfully developed and validated for its sensitivity to detect dengue virus. Evaluation of assays on field‐collected mosquitoes is still ongoing with over 500 field‐collected adult mosquitoes from Brazil. Furthermore, ethics approval has been sought to place 1000 mosquito traps across 500 residential addresses in Ward 33 in Sri Lanka as part of the entomological assessment study.

RESEARCH AREA 2:

WP4: Ten schools in Chochaengsao Province, Thailand, were selected for the trial of insecticide impregnated school uniforms as an intervention against dengue transmission. Qualitative studies were conducted to assess the acceptability of impregnated uniforms, and the results have been published. More than 1800 children were recruited, had baseline blood tests taken, and post‐intervention samples taken 5 months later. Knock‐down effect on mortality of mosquitoes were tested on impregnated uniforms after repeated washing, and unfortunately the initially promising efficacy of above 90% dropped to below 10% within 10 washes. Due to this waning efficacy, the Executive Board decided to discontinue the trial after the first year. Analyses of the paired blood samples and the entomological assays in classrooms and around the schools are still ongoing.

WP5: Repellency testing was done on InsectShield factory clothing and showed 79%

Second periodic report



protection against mosquito bites and 40% against mosquito landings. The repellency effect was significantly lower in a partially covered arm compared to a fully covered arm. Knockdown and Mortality dropped drastically after the first wash to below 20% after the 30th wash, hence the WHOPES wash tests did not match the claims of the company of the duration of permethrin for 70 washes.

RESEARCH AREA 3:

WP6: Of the original 17 TropNet Sites, a few sites dropped out and were replaced. Currently, 15 TropNet centers are participating. Furthermore, we were granted access to 150 samples obtained from expatriates in Tanzania during the recent dengue outbreak. Dengue sequencing is PCR positive samples is still ongoing in Madrid.

WP7: Three field trials in Southern France were conducted during the summer season to assess the impact of insecticidal aerosols on the adult mosquito populations. Males appeared more vulnerable than females. Swingfog ‐a hand‐held thermal fogger‐ gave betterresults with 90% reduction of both males and females. Studies with lethal oviposition traps are ongoing with initial results looking very promising.

WP8: Using temperature data from 1901 to 2009, dengue epidemic potential was estimated based on relative vectorial capacity of Aedes aegypti both globally as well as in Europe. Furthermore, we are studying the risk of dengue importation into Europe by analysing air travel extent and connectivity between dengue endemic countries and Europe.

WP9: Data management procedures were successfully set up for WP 1 and 4, and statisticalsupport is ongoing. We conducted research capacity building workshops in Thailand and Sri Lanka (WP 1 and 4).

WP10: A systematic review on the dengue risk mapping was undertaken. Mapping and spatial analysis of serologically confirmed dengue cases in the Thai field trial from 2012 is ongoing with a Thai PhD student (with WP 4). For Ward 33 an active cohort study was established, and we added the GIS component and an analysis of a KAP survey amongst those households.

WP11: Costing studies on surveillance and control systems as well as the cost of illness to individual patients and their families are still ongoing. A cost‐effectiveness analysis was completed and published on the use of insecticide treated uniforms for the prevention of dengue, modelled around various scenarios of efficacy. First meetings with policy makers in Sri Lanka have taken place.



Harris CL, Sanchez‐Vargas IJ, Olson KE, Alphey L, Fu G. Polymerase chain displacement

reaction. BioTechniques 2013; 55:93‐97. PDF

Helmersson‐Liu J, Stenlund H, Wilder‐Smith A, Rocklöv J. Vectorial capacity of Aedes aegypti: Effects of temperature and implications for global dengue epidemic potential. PLOS One 2014;9:e89783 PDF

Jaenisch T, Sakuntabhai A, Wilder‐Smith A. Dengue research funded by the European Commission. Scientific strategies of three European dengue research consortia. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 2013; 7: 1‐10. PDF

Massad E, Amaku M, Antoio F, Coutinho B, Kittayapong P, Wilder‐Smith A. Theoretical

impact of insecticide‐impregnated school uniforms on dengue incidence in Thai children.

Global health action 2013; 6: 20473‐. PDF

Massad E, Amaku M, Antoio F, Coutinho B, Kittayapong P, Wilder‐Smith A. Theoretical impact of insecticide‐impregnated school uniforms on dengue incidence in Thai children. Global Health Action 2013; 6: 20473‐. PDF

Massad E, Rocklöv J, Wilder‐Smith A. Dengue infections in non‐immune travellers to Thailand. Epidemiology and Infection. 2013;141(2):412‐417. PDF

Massad E, Rocklöv J, Wilder‐Smith A. Dengue infections in non‐immune travellers to

Thailand. Epidemiology and Infection. 2013;141(2):412‐417. PDF

Massad E, Wilder‐Smith A, Ximenes R, Amaku M, Fernandez Lopez L, Bezerra Coutinho FA, Coelho GE, da Silva Jr JB, Struchiner CJ, Burattini MN. Risk of symptomatic dengue for foreign visitors to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz 2014:1‐4 PDF

Massad E, Burattini MN, Ximenes R, Amaku M, Wilder‐Smith A. Dengue outlook for the World Cup in Brazil. The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Comments. Available online 11 June 2014 PDF

Murray N, Jansarikij S, Olanratmanee P, Maskhao P, Souares A, Wilder‐Smith A, Kittayapong P, Louis VR. Acceptability of Impregnated School Uniforms for Dengue Control in Thailand: A Mixed Methods Approach. Gloabal Health action. Aug 2014 . PDF

Rocklöv J, Lohr W, Hjertqvist M, Wilder‐Smith A. Attack rates of dengue fever in Swedish travellers. Scandinavian Journal of Infectious Diseases 2014 (early online) PDF

Sessions OM, Khan K, Hou Y, Meltzer E, Quam M, Schwartz E, Gubler DJ, Wilder‐Smith A. Exploring the origin and potential for spread of the 2013 dengue outbreak in Luanda, Angola. Global Health Action. 2013 Aug 2;6:21822. PDF

Teoh BT, Sam SS, Tan KK, Johari J, Danlami MB, Hooi PS, Md‐Esa R, Abubakar S. Detection of dengue viruses using reverse transcription‐loop‐mediated isothermal amplification. BMC Infect Dis. 2013 Aug 21;13(1):387. PDF

DengueTools publications (2013-2014)



Tozan Y, Ratanawong P, Louis VR, Kittayapong P, Wilder‐Smith A. Use of Insecticide‐Treated School Uniforms for Prevention of Dengue in Schoolchildren: A Cost‐Effectiveness Analysis. PLoS ONE 9(9): e108017. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0108017. PDF

Wilder‐Smith A, Quam M, Sessions O, Rocklöv J, Liu‐Helmersson J, Franco L, Khan K. The 2012 dengue outbreak in Madeira: exploring the origins. Eurosurveillance 2014;19, Issue 8. PDF

Wilder‐Smith A. Dengue vaccines: dawning at last? Lancet. 2014 Jul 10. pii: S0140‐6736(14)61142‐9. doi: 10.1016/S0140‐6736(14)61142‐9. [Epub ahead of print] PDF

Annelies Wilder‐Smith is quoted in: Normile D. Dengue vaccine trial poses public health quandary. Experimental vaccine fell short against key strain. Science 2014;345:367‐368. PDF

Kindly be reminded that every publication that is a result of DengueTools should contain the following statement: The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007‐2013) under grant agreement no. 282589.

List of Partners No Name of Organization Short name Country

1 Umeå Universitet UmU Sweden

2 Ministry of Health and Nutrition SRL Sri Lanka

3 TwistDx Limited TDX United Kingdom

4 University of Malaya UM Malaysia

5 Oxitec Limited OXTC United Kingdom

6 Mahidol University MU Thailand

7 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine LSHTM United Kingdom

8 Schweizerisches Tropen Und Public Health Institut STPH Switzerland

9 Institut Pasteur IP France

10 Universitaetsklinikum Heidelberg UKL‐HD Germany

11 National University of Singapore DKNS Singapore

13 Instituto De Salud Carlos III ISCIII Spain

14 Entente interdepartmentale pour la demoustication du littoral méditerranéen

EID France

15 Fundaco De Apoio a Universidade de Sao Paulo FUSP Brazil

Newsletter contributors: Valérie Louis, Lena Mustonen, Annelies Wilder‐Smith, Raman Preet (WP12)

Documents

Innovative tools and strategies for surveillance and ...denguetools.com/DT Newsletter Issue 2rev.pdf · Over the months, number of smaller working group meetings, field trip and workshops