Popular Science Lectures-When Dengue Met Zika

Likely you have heard of dengue fever and you may know that it is caused by dengue virus infection. But do you know that there are four types of dengue virus; different types of immunity can not protect the human body from dengue virus infection, and it may even cause more serious diseases. How does this happen? How does this affect the development of dengue vaccine? What is Zika virus? Zika virus has been discovered for more than 70 years, however it did not cause serious illness and was not taken seriously. Until 2015-2016, Zika virus caused a big outbreak in Central and South America, and was found to be related to the cases of microcephaly in Brazil, which attracted worldwide attention. Actually, Zika virus and dengue virus belong to the same viral family. Is the serious Zika outbreak in Brazil related to the previous dengue virus infection? This talk will explain the interaction between virus and host immunity, and how this interplay makes Dengue and Zika so difficult to deal with!