In:

Science China

Authors:

Xiao-Feng Li, Jian-Feng Han, Pei-Yong Shi, & Cheng-Feng Qin

In the winter of 2015, the first dengue vaccine (Dengvaxia) was approved for clinical use. Dengue virus is the most prevalent mosquito-transmitted viral pathogen in humans (Qin and Shi, 2014). Even though the approved Dengvaxia has its weaknesses (e.g., low protection against serotype-2 virus), it has been recently licensed to Mexico, Philippines, and Brazil. While the world is celebrating the first dengue vaccine, another mosquito-borne virus, Zika virus (ZIKV), emerged to cause global threat, causing thousands of infants with brain defects and adults with neurological diseases (Fauci and Mores, 2016). In December 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) added ZIKV to the second tier of three diseases ranked as serious, and issued travel warnings to ZIKV epidemic areas (with more than twenty-three countries). The ongoing pandemic is explosive. More than four million ZIKV infections are expected in America by the end of 2016.

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