News Releases

Professor Christine Carrington presents ‘Dengue: Past Present and Future’

For Release Upon Receipt - March 19, 2013

St. Augustine


Why did dengue suddenly emerge in the Americas?

ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad and Tobago – The Open Lectures Committee of The University of the West Indies (UWI) St. Augustine will host the Professorial Inaugural Lecture of Professor Christine Carrington entitled "Dengue: Past, Present and Future."

The World Health Organization’s Regional Office for the Mediterranean asserts that Dengue is the most rapidly spreading mosquito-borne viral disease in the world. Its incidence has increased 30-fold over the last 50 years, such that it is now considered one of the most important emerging diseases of the 21st century. While the causative dengue viruses have existed in the Americas for hundreds of years, outbreaks were few and far between until the 1960s and 70s, when large epidemics of dengue fever swept through the region. Outbreaks with large numbers of cases with more severe, life-threatening disease manifestations made their appearance in the 1980s and since then the size, frequency and severity of outbreaks in the Americas have been increasing steadily. Professor Carrington will explore questions such as “Why did Dengue suddenly emerge in the Americas? Where did it come from? Why did the disease pattern change, and what can we expect in the future?”

According to Professor Carrington, “By investigating the genomes of currently circulating viruses we have been able to reconstruct the history of dengue virus populations in the Americas and to identify factors underlying their evolution, emergence, patterns of spread and mechanisms of maintenance.  The application of this type of phylogenetic approach to unravelling the histories of Dengue and other "emerging / re-emerging viruses” in our region e.g. yellow fever, rabies, and the implications for future monitoring and control will be discussed.”

The lecture will be held at Lecture Theatre 1, Block 13, Faculty of Engineering, on Thursday 21 March 2013 from 5.30pm. For further information or to RSVP, please contact Ms. Zennille Swann at 662-2002 ext. 82013.

All are invited.

End

Notes to Editor on Prof Carrington:

Professor Christine Carrington joined the Department of Preclinical Sciences in the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus in 1996. She is a graduate of the University of London, where she completed her BSc in Biotechnology in 1990 at King's College, and her PhD in Molecular Virology at the Institute of Cancer Research in 1994. Professor Carrington's research interests lie in understanding evolutionary and ecological factors involved in the emergence, spread and maintenance of viruses that have their origins in animal populations and have emerged (or have the potential to emerge) into human populations. Her current work focuses on RNA viruses such as dengue, yellow fever, other mosquito-borne viruses, and rabies. 

 

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About UWI

Over the last six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with 45 physical site locations across the region, serving 16 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science & Technology, Food & Agriculture, and Social Sciences.

 

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)

 

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