The PDVI Board of Counselors met in Seoul on April 25—26. The BOC meets twice a year. In addition to a spring meeting, the BOC meets in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. The spring meeting focuses on programs while the fall meeting is concerned primarily with administrative and financial

Dr. Harold Margolis, PDVI Director, provided an overview of major developments. His remarks focused on the Strategic Plan. During most of 2005, a core team of PDVI staff and consultants (Dr. Margolis, Dr. Mahoney, Dr. Ian Gust and Dr. Philip Russell) worked with the BOC to develop a new Strategic Plan. The Plan was approved by the BOC at its December 2005 meeting in Washington DC. Subsequently, the Plan was presented to staff of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle in March 2006.

Dr. Margolis highlighted several parts of the Plan.

Partnerships: He noted that discussions are already under way with all the companies involved in dengue vaccine development. Additional discussions are being held with key companies concerned with dengue diagnostics. Diagnostic development, as summarized elsewhere in this Newsletter, is a high priority for PDVI. Collaborations with public sector organizations such as WHO and TDR are well developed and will be further strengthened.

Field Sites: The Plan calls for the establishment of several field sites for vaccine evaluation. One site is already operating in Nicaragua. Significant progress has been made in setting up additional field sites in several other countries with discussions underway in Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Cost of illness studies: Dr. Shepard reported on the studies underway as noted in the preceding story. Excellent progress has been made and preliminary results indicate that dengue vaccination would be cost effective even if the cost of fully immunizing a child were on the order of $24

Dengue Prevention Boards: PDVI is forming two Dengue Prevention Boards, one in asia and a second in the Americas. Nominations have been received for the Asian Board, and it will have its first meeting toward the end of 2006. Dr.Trinh Quan Huan, a member of the BOC and Vice-Minister of Health of Vietnam. agreed to host the meeting in Vietnam in conjunction with a meeting of the national comitee on dengue.

Dr.Margolis also reported on efforts to recruit a number of new staff. Starting January 1, Dr.Richard Mahoney was appointed Director, Vaccine Access and continued his work as Senior Advisor, Strategic Program Development. A number of additional individuals are being recruited and should join PDVI in the coming months.

Board of Counselors (*) and Staff. Front left to right: Trinh Quan Huan*, Ichiro Kurane*, Eunyoung Kim, Ian Gust*, Harvey Artsob, Srisakul Kliks, Nam Hee Kim, Mimi Jun, Ji-Sun Kim. Rear left to right: Agus Suwandono*, Harold Margolis*, Scott Halstead*, Duane Gubler*, Richard Mahoney, Charles Gardner, Don Shepard.