Dear Colleagues,

I am pleased to write to you on behalf of the Americas Dengue Prevention Board. This issue of PDVI News focuses on Field Sites, a crucial part of the PDVI program, which will only increase in importance as candidate vaccines enter fields trials later this year and next year. PDVI works with 11 field sites, some of which are funded by other donors, but all of the field sites are linked together as members of the PDVI Field Site Consortium, and are involved in dengue surveillance. These sites will be undertaking detailed surveillance studies using comparable protocols and data management techniques. In addition, a number of these sites in both the Asia-Pacific region and in the Americas region will be selected as trial sites for candidate dengue vaccines, and PDVI is working hard to help them prepare for the upcoming trials.

This will also be an important year for the work of the Dengue Prevention Boards. The Boards are composed of independent experts in dengue and related fields who consider issues central to the prevention of dengue. Both Boards have completed their meetings on surveillance - the Asia Pacific Board in Colombo, Sri Lanka in June 2007, and the Americas Board in Mexico City, Mexico in January of this year. The reports from these two meetings will be compiled into a single report and it is in preparation now. A second set of meetings on dengue diagnostics will also result in a joint report. The Asia Pacific Board held its diagnostics meeting on 1-2 December 2007 in Bangkok, Thailand, and the America's Board will hold its diagnostics meeting on 28-30 July 2008, in my city, Belem, Brazil. Just prior to the Belem meeting, PDVI will host the first America's Dengue Research Network meeting in Recife, Brazil on 23-25 July 2008. I am looking forward to welcoming my colleagues on the Americas Board and other researchers to both meetings, and to the good results they promise to deliver.

The Americas Board and the Asia Pacific Board will meet together this year for the first time in Phuket, Thailand. This meeting, to be held on 18-19 October 2008 will be convened to review progress to date on the Opportunities and Challenges Report (a comprehensive report on the future of dengue control and prevention globally) and on an update of the PDVI Strategic Plan. Many of you may also want to attend the Second International Conference on Dengue and Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever, also being convened in Phuket by the Thai Ministry of Public Health on 15-17 October 2008, immediately prior to the joint meeting of the two Dengue Prevention Boards.