Available online 10 October 2022, 100630

Life-long serotype-specific immunity in dengue infection may not always occur.

We analyze more than 20 years of data from French Polynesia.

The risk of symptomatic DENV increases the risk of heterotypic secondary infections.

Waning immunity improved the ability of models to capture epidemic dynamics.

This study is important for vaccine development for dengue-endemic areas.

Life-long serotype-specific immunity following dengue virus infection may not always occur, but the true extent of this effect is unknown. Analysis of more than 20 years of monotypic epidemics in the isolated French Polynesian islands revealed that whilst the risk of symptomatic dengue infection did conform to the classical paradigms of homotypic immunity and increased disease risk in heterotypic secondary infections, incorporation of waning immunity improved the ability of epidemiological models to capture the observed epidemic dynamics. Not only does this show how inclusion of waning immunity into classical models can reveal important facets of the immune response to natural dengue virus infection, it also has significant ramifications for vaccine development and implementation in dengue endemic areas.

DENV

Dengue

French

Polynesia

Monotypic

Epidemics

Immunity

Vaccine

Model

The data are fully available and can be accessed via this link. https://figshare.com/s/deebd75b84e742c1803f

© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.