National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi-110067.
Abstracts of Research Papers Presented during the National Symposium of Indian Virological Society at Unit of Plant Virology, Division of Plant Pathology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110 012, October 14–1.
Japanese encephalitis (JE) is the most important form of viral encephalitis in Asia that is caused by Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), a member of the flaviviridae family of animal viruses. The virus is transmitted to human beings by mosquitoes feeding on viremic animals, mostly domestic pigs, resulting in frequent epidemics of JE. The virus is active over a vast geographic area covering India, China and virtually all of the South-East Asia. Approximately 3 billion people live in the JEV endemic areas where at least 50,000 cases of JE are reported every year. Of these, about 10,000 cases result in deaths and a high proportion of survivors develop serious neurological and psychiatric sequel.
There is no drug treatment for JE. Although improvements in agricultural practices have contributed to the reduction in disease incidence in some countries, JE vaccination is the single most important control measure. There is only one World Health Organization (WHO) approved JEV vaccine that is currently available in the international market. The vaccine is developed by formalin-inactivation of JEV cultured in mouse brain. The major problems associated with the mouse-brain derived inactivated vaccine are the lack of long-term immunity and practical difficulties in production of large amounts of vaccine needed for mass immunization programs.
In the past few years, there has been a rapid growth in the knowledge of molecular information on JEV and on the basis of this information several potential vaccines have been developed using different approaches. The lecture will provide information on these new developments.
