登革熱的快速實驗室診斷及疫苗發展

Rapid Laboratory Diagnosis and Vaccine Development for Dengue Fever

近年來，登革熱的發生率在全世界各地區均有上升之趨勢，每年造成數億人口之感染。登革熱感染對象並無專一性，任何人皆可能受到感染，感染後大多只造成不致命的臨床症狀如發燒、頭痛等症狀，但偶爾仍會產生嚴重之臨床徵候甚至導致病人死亡。現今登革熱尚無針對此一病毒的藥物可治療，對於嚴重的登革熱病例，適當的支持性療法是降低死亡率重要的治療。所以早期的診斷至關重要，現今已有許多特異性的登革熱檢測方式可供運用，登革熱快速檢測（Rapid diagnostic test; RDT）提供了普及化的快速檢測，其良好的敏感度及特異度，提供臨床於流行期的一個診斷工具。另一方面，登革熱的疫苗發展於近年來有長足的發展，提供了登革熱防治的另一工具，可提供適當的群體免疫以遏止其傳播，其對曾感染血清抗體陽性的族群可提供良好的保護能力並阻斷流行傳播。

In recent years, the incidence of dengue fever has increased in all regions of the world, causing infections of hundreds of millions of people every year. There is no selectivity in dengue infection, and anyone may be infected. Most of the infections cause non-fatal clinical symptoms, such as fever and headache, but occasionally serious clinical symptoms may occur, which can even cause death. There is no current drug for the treatment of dengue. For severe cases of dengue, appropriate supportive therapy is an important modality to reduce the mortality. Therefore, early diagnosis is crucial. Many specific dengue detection methods are available nowadays. The rapid detection test for dengue provides universal rapid detection, and its sensitivity and specificity make it a useful tool for clinical use. On the other hand, the dengue fever vaccine has developed rapidly in recent years and provides another tool for dengue prevention. It induces appropriate group immunity to curb the spread of the disease and provides protection for infected people.