The mosquito would not be the only vector of dengue fever. A sexual transmission of the virus between two men was confirmed on November 8 by the Spanish health authorities.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control confirmed this on November 8 in a Message sent to Agence France Presse: a case of sexual transmission of the dengue virus between two men was observed in Spain and, “to the knowledge” of this Centre, this would be a first. It was in Madrid that this case was diagnosed in a 41-year-old man, infected by his companion, himself infected with the virus following mosquito bites suffered during a trip to Cuba.
Dengue usually manifests after 2 to 7 days of incubation with the appearance of a high fever often accompanied by headache, nausea, vomiting, joint and muscle pain and a skin rash resembling that of measles.
This sexual contamination was confirmed after a thorough examination of the situation of the victim who had never himself traveled to an endemic area and while no case of mosquito capable of transmitting this virus has been observed in Spain.
The same virus as the one circulating in Cuba
Susanna Jimenez, Spanish epidemiologist, member of the general directorate of public health for the Madrid region, explains how the Spanish health authorities came to this confirmation of sexual contamination: “His companion who had recently traveled to Cuba had shown the same symptoms as him, but milder and about ten days earlier.Tests, including an analysis of their semen, revealed that they were both victims of the dengue virus and that he is was indeed the same virus as the one circulating in Cuba”.
This sexual contamination of dengue may have a precedent: “A probable case of sexual transmission between a man and a woman had been the subject of a scientific publication in South Korea”, underlined Susanna Jimenez . After this confirmation of sexual transmission of the virus, she speaks of a discovery of another mechanism of transmission of the virus “of global importance”.
Contamination by mosquitoes remained for a long time the only route of transmission of the virus considered, in particular because insects are very present in areas where the disease is endemic.
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