Dengue fever and Ebola virus disease are two major epidemics that are threatening millions of people in the world today with no effective remedies available to treat the patients. Dengue fever, the fastest growing tropical illness, currently affects at least 100 million people, according to the World Health Organization, although many doctors believe that because the disease is often misdiagnosed, the actual number of people affected could be three times more than what is estimated. Though most people survive the excruciatingly painful disease, more than 20,000 people do die from the disease every year with children the most affected. Dengue virus can cause flu-like symptoms, as well as bleeding gums, vomiting and severe abdominal pain. The disease is transmitted by the bite of an Aedes mosquito infected with a dengue virus. The mosquito becomes infected when it bites a person with dengue virus in their blood. It can’t be spread directly from one person to another person. The Ebola virus disease, started in Guinea, has since spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone in West Africa. The ongoing epidemic is the most widespread in history and has caused significant mortality, with a reported fatality rate of 71%. As of November 2014, the WHO and the governments of the affected countries have reported a total of 14,098 suspected cases and 5,489 deaths, though the WHO believes that this substantially understates the magnitude of the outbreak with true figures numbering three times as many cases as have been reported. The assistant director-general of the WHO warned in mid-October that there could be as many as 10,000 new EVD cases per week by December 2014. Almost all of the cases have occurred in the three initial countries.
While EVD is largely confined to West Africa, India is facing the major threat from dengue fever with hundreds of people already died in various parts of the country and several thousands are undergoing treatment for the disease. As such there is no approved remedy available for the disease in country although research is on to find a new drug for the same. The pharma major Sanofi claims to have developed world's first vaccine against the disease and could be available by the second half of 2015 if all the trials turn successful. Sanofi is not the only pharma company in the race to develop a cure for dengue. GSK, Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical and Merck & Co are also developing vaccines to treat or prevent the spread of dengue virus. Sanofi claims to have spent more than 1.3 billion Euros for the research and the company could be the first to get a vaccine to prevent the disease. In case of Ebola virus also, vaccines are under development stages only and animal studies are found to be successful. An experimental vaccine of GSK is already under Phase I trials and is being administered to volunteers in Oxford and Bethesda. If these trials are successful, the vaccine will be fast tracked for use in West Africa. It is not very clear how many millions of lives will be lost before these two vaccines are approved and launched in the market. With the outbreak of new diseases like Dengue and Ebola in an epidemic scale, the world is facing perhaps much bigger challenge today than it faced in the middle of 20th Century. It is important therefore that the governments of developing countries should equip themselves with adequate funds and scientific manpower to face health emergencies like this in future as the global pharmaceutical companies take their own time to come forward with any instant solutions.