SINGAPORE, June 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- In support of the 6th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Dengue Day, the Asian Dengue Vaccination Advocacy (ADVA) is launching the Dengue Mission Buzz Barometer, a tool to measure ASEAN community engagement for the prevention of dengue. The Barometer will also comprise an educational online portal to increase dengue awareness and readiness within communities. Dengue, the fastest-growing mosquito-borne disease in the world, represents a major health threat and public health burden for Southeast Asia.
The Dengue Mission Buzz Barometer features a Dengue Readiness Quiz to help site visitors gauge their level of dengue prevention readiness. Quiz results across the six participating countries, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam will be dynamically displayed on a scoreboard on the site and participants are encouraged to share their quiz results and completion badges on social media. ADVA aims to educate at least 25,000 citizens in these countries with the quiz. The Dengue Mission Buzz portal also presents valuable news, videos and information about dengue prevention, and is available in multiple languages.
"By launching the Dengue Mission Buzz portal in conjunction with ASEAN Dengue Day, we hope to increase public awareness of dengue and its prevention in an engaging and interactive way, while encouraging greater vigilance against the disease in the region," said Prof Usa Thisyakorn, Chairman of the Asian Dengue Vaccination Advocacy.
The new Dengue Mission Buzz portal builds on last year's successful Dengue Mission Buzz educational campaign, during which a bus travelled over 4,000 kilometers through six Southeast Asian countries -- Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines -- to bring information about dengue prevention and control to ASEAN communities in conjunction with ASEAN Dengue Day. ASEAN Dengue Day is observed every year on the 15th June throughout the region in recognition of the critical need to increase public awareness as one of the main strategies to reduce the risk of dengue transmission. The theme for this year's ASEAN Dengue Day, "Community Empowerment: A Sustainable Success to Fight Dengue", echoes the Dengue Mission Buzz portal's objective to educate and empower communities across the region in the fight against dengue.
While governments in the region have made dengue prevention a priority on their public health agendas, the rising incidence of dengue continues to have a negative socioeconomic impact on the region. Currently, governments in Southeast Asia are spending nearly US$1 billion[1] per year due to dengue.
"The economic burden of dengue in ASEAN and factors such as changing weather patterns, increasingly mobile populations and urbanization make it imperative for countries to add new tools such as the dengue vaccine, which was recently recommended by the World Health Organization Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization, to existing initiatives to fight the disease. Co-operation between governments is crucial to address macro issues surrounding the prevention and control of dengue, and to remove barriers to action," said Dr Ferdinal M Fernando, Assistant Director and Head of the Health and Communicable Diseases Division (HCDD), ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Department, ASEAN Secretariat.
Dengue is the fastest growing mosquito-borne disease in the world today, causing nearly 400 million infections every year.[2] In the last 50 years, dengue has spread from being present in a handful of countries to being endemic in 128 countries, where about 4 billion people live, and dengue incidence has likewise increased 30-fold in this time period.[3,4] In Southeast Asia, the economic and disease burden of dengue surpasses that of 17 other diseases including upper respiratory infections, and hepatitis B[5] .
The Dengue Mission Buzz Barometer is supported by an education grant from Sanofi Pasteur, maker of the world's first dengue vaccine.
For further information on the Dengue Mission Buzz website, please visit denguemissionbuzz.org
[1] Donald S. Shepard, Eduardo A. Undurraga, and Yara A. Halasa, Duane J. Gubler, Editor. Economic and Disease Burden of Dengue in Southeast Asia, PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2013;7(2):e2055.
[2] WHO. Dengue and severe dengue. Fact Sheet N° 117. May 2015. Available at http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs117/en/ [Last accessed: 11 May 2016]
[3] Ibid.
[4] WHO. Emergencies, preparedness, response. Impact of dengue. Available at http://www.who.int/csr/disease/dengue/impact/en/ [Last accessed: 11 May 2016]
[5]Shepard DS, Undurraga E, et al. Economic and Disease Burden of Dengue in Southeast Asia. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Published 21 February 2013. Available at http://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0002055 [Last accessed: 14 Jun 2016]
About ADVA
The Asian Dengue Vaccine Advocacy (ADVA) is a scientific working group dedicated to dengue vaccine advocacy in Asia, with the aim of disseminating information and making recommendations on dengue vaccine introduction strategies in Asia.
About Sanofi
Sanofi, a global healthcare leader, discovers, develops and distributes therapeutic solutions focused on patients' needs. Sanofi has core strengths in diabetes solutions, human vaccines, innovative drugs, consumer healthcare, emerging markets, animal health and Genzyme. Sanofi is listed in Paris (EURONEXT: SAN) and in New York (NYSE: SNY).
Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of Sanofi, provides more than 1 billion doses of vaccine each year, making it possible to immunize more than 500 million people across the globe. A world leader in the vaccine industry, Sanofi Pasteur produces a portfolio of high quality vaccines that matches its areas of expertise and meets public-health demand. The company's heritage, to create vaccines that protect life, dates back more than a century. Sanofi Pasteur is the largest company entirely dedicated to vaccines. Every day, the company invests more than EUR 1 million in research and development. For more information, please visit: www.sanofipasteur.com or www.sanofipasteur.us
Contact
Kai Ling Koh
Tel: +65 66671 7621
Email: info@denguemissionbuzz.org
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