Department of Virology: Research Projects

Influenza Surveillance Service

Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS), Bangkok, Thailand is undertaking influenza surveillance with regional U.S. Embassy Medical Units. During the current novel influenza A (H1N1) outbreak, we will continue to conduct this influenza surveillance in which you can send respiratory samples to AFRIMS for influenza testing.

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Guideline VDO Clip

Projects
Title:	Efficacy and Safety of a Novel Tetravalent Dengue Vaccine in Healthy Children Aged 2 to 14 years in Asia
Description:	Sanofi Pasteur is developing a chimeric yellow fever-dengue vaccine (CYD). The USAMRMC has adopted CYD into USAMMDA’s Advanced Development Program. The study aims to assess the efficacy of CYD dengue vaccine after 3 vaccinations at 0, 6, and 12 months in preventing symptomatic virologically-confirmed dengue cases in children aged 2 to 14 years.
Collaborators:	Sanofi Pasteur Mahidol University, School of Tropical Medicine Kamphaeng Phet Provincial Hospital Chong Hua Hospital Research Institute for Tropical Medicine Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center The Cebu City Health Office
Title:	Prospective Surveillance of Febrile Illness for Dengue-Endemic Areas in Asia
Description:	Prospective multi-center cohort study in subjects aged 2 to 14 years in 5 countries in Asia: Viet Nam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines. The Department is assisting work in the latter two countries. While, no vaccinations will be administered in this study, it will serve to prepare candidate sites for CYD14, a Phase III dengue vaccine efficacy trial. This study identifies acute febrile episodes among the cohort in order to detect the presence of dengue infection and other causes of acute febrile illness, develops and evaluates operational infrastructure for potential Phase III dengue efficacy trial sites, and to describes the dengue seroprevalence among the cohort at baseline and at the end of the study.
Collaborators:	Sanofi Pasteur Mahidol University, School of Tropical Medicine Kamphaeng Phet Provincial Hospital Chong Hua Hospital Research Institute for Tropical Medicine The Cebu City Health Office
Title:	Kamphaeng Phet Prospective Dengue Surveillance Study
Description:	Study objectives are designed to collect dengue epidemiologic (clinical, serologic, virologic) data in a pediatric cohort in KPP. Exploratory objectives include evaluation of influenza epidemiology in the same cohort. An immunology sub-study profiles the cohort before, during, and after dengue virus infection. Information collected are important to understanding dengue virus circulation dynamics and how to design a future dengue vaccine efficacy trial in KPP.
Collaborators:	University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester
Title:	Dengue Virus Circulation, Evolution, Virus-Vector, and Virus-Host Interactions in Kamphaeng Phet Province, Thailand
Description:	A study to establish baseline data of wild-type DENV genetic diversity and microevolution in a geographically defined area and to characterize the impact of mosquito-virus interactions on DENV genetic diversity and microevolution. This information will function as a baseline for similar investigations performed when tetravalent dengue vaccines are introduced into the same geographic area either during efficacy trials or as part of an immunization program.
Collaborators:	State University of New York (SUNY), Upstate Medical University USAMC-AFRIMS, Department of Entomology University of California, Davis State University of New York (SUNY), University at Buffalo Pennsylvania State University University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester
Title:	The Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever Project IV: Continued Prospective Observational Studies of Children with Suspected Dengue
Description:	The objective is to determine the clinical, immunologic, and virologic correlates that identify children who do and do not develop clinical evidence of shock, to characterize the pathophysiology of severe dengue illness before, during and after acute shock; and to expand on observations regarding immunopathologic mechanisms of DHF with the focus on identifying and quantifying clinically useful markers of outcome.
Collaborators:	Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester University College London Institute of Surgical Research State University of New York (SUNY), Upstate Medical University
Title:	Japanese Encephalitis Surveillance in Nepal
Description:	A study to validate JE diagnosis in Nepal and to determine the percentage of Japanese encephalitis and other causes of encephalitis among blinded samples provided to AFRIMS from Nepal.
Collaborators:	Walter Reed/AFRIMS Research Unit-Nepal (WARUN) National Public Health Laboratory, Nepal
Title:	Influenza Surveillance in Southeast Asia
Description:	A study to collect and characterize influenza viruses circulating within the human population in Asia including Thailand, Nepal, the Philippines, Bhutan and from the US Embassy/Consulate in the region. Data helps provide influenza surveillance data to the US CDC and WHO surveillance network towards the annual re-formulation of the influenza vaccine. Results are reported to the Ministry of Health of host countries.
Collaborators:	Walter Reed/AFRIMS Research Unit-Nepal (WARUN) Public Health Laboratory, Bhutan Armed Forces of the Philippines Medical Center Ministry of Public Health, Thailand U.S. Embassy in region Phramongkutklao Hospital
Title:	Use of Geographic Information System (GIS) to Establish a Community-Based Biosurveillance Infrastructure in Cebu City, Philippines
Description:	This project aims to establish a community-based disease surveillance system which includes obtaining information from households within the entire community including Guadalupe and Banawa, Cebu City.
Collaborators:	Cebu City GIS Center The Cebu City Health Office
Title:	Sentinel Surveillance for Emerging Diseases Causing Hospitalized Dengue-like Illness in Cebu, Philippines
Description:	This was a cross-sectional, hospital-based passive surveillance study conducted among admitted patients in Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC), a tertiary government hospital located in Manila, Philippines. The incidences of dengue/leptospirosis/chikungunya/scrub typhus/murine typhus are particular interest.
Collaborators:	Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center
Title:	Prospective Studies of Avian Influenza Transmission in Cambodia and Thailand
Description:	This study prospectively monitors a cohort of human populations with poultry contact for evidence of avian influenza A infection and determines risk factors for H5 influenza A infection.
Collaborators:	University of Iowa Naval Medical Research Unit 2 National Institute of Public Health, Cambodia
Title:	Prospective Study of Influenza A Transmission From and To Household Animals in Thailand
Description:	This study incorporates animal surveillance to the cohort study of Avian Influenza Transmission in Thailand.
Collaborators:	National Institute of Animal Health, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives Kamphaeng Phet Provincial Livestock Office, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives
Title:	Collaborative Electronic Disease Surveillance Project in the Philippines
Description:	The project aims at strengthening the disease surveillance activities in the Philippines and entails the creation and use of an electronic surveillance system to manage, analyze and report surveillance data and to monitor disease and syndrome trends for potential disease outbreaks.
Collaborators:	Department of Defense-Global Emerging Infections Surveillance & Response System (DoD-GEIS) Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) Philippines Department of Health – National Epidemiology Center (DOH-NEC) & Cebu City Health Office.
Title:	United States Army Medical Component-Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (USAMC-AFRIMS), Department of Virology Specimen Repository
Description:	The department has maintained an archive of frozen specimens collected as part of it longstanding endeavor to provide free diagnostic testing for defining disease epidemiology throughout the region. As a WHO collaborator AFRIMS is increasing asked to answer questions with existing data. Though personal identifiers have been treated with concern for privacy issue in mind, we plan for this archive to undergo standardization of documentation governing its use and upkeep, to include the depersonalization of data associated with each specimen. This archive can then serve to facilitate the testing of new diagnostic platforms and support infectious disease research including vaccine and drug development.
Completed
Title:	A Phase I/II Trial of a Tetravalent Live Attenuated Dengue Vaccine in Flavivirus Antibody Naive Infants
Description:	The objective of the study is to assess the safety and immunogenicity of two doses of the WRAIR/GlaxoSmithKline tetravalent dengue vaccine in flavivirus naïve Thai infants. A five year long term safety follow up component was added to the study design. Lastly, investigators explored the safety and immunogenicity (cellular and humoral) of administering a third dose of dengue vaccine.
Collaborators:	Phramongkutklao Hospital GlaxoSmithKline
Title:	A Phase I/II, Open, Five-Year, Clinical Follow-Up Study of Thai Children Who Participated in Dengue-003 ("A Phase I/II Trial of A Tetravalent Live Attenuated Dengue Vaccine in Flavivirus Antibody Naive Children") with Evaluation of a Booster Dose Given One Year after Primary Dengue Vaccination Series
Description:	The primary objective of this study is to assess the immunogenicity of a booster dose of dengue vaccine administered approximately one year following the second dose.
Collaborators:	Phramongkutklao Hospital GlaxoSmithKline
Title:	Phase II, randomized, double-blind, single center, controlled study of two doses of different formulations of the WRAIR live attenuated tetravalent dengue vaccine compared to a placebo control, administered on a 0-6-month schedule, to healthy adults
Description:
Collaborators:	Phramongkutklao Hospital GlaxoSmithKline

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