Dengue can be sexually transmitted, confirms Spanish health authorities

The Spanish health authority has reported a very rare case involving a man who got the dengue infection from his partner

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Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are seen at the Laboratory of Entomology and Ecology of the Dengue Branch Reuters

The mosquito-borne viral infection, dengue usually noticed in tropical and subtropical areas. A person can be infected if a mosquito carrying dengue infection bits the individual. But shockingly Spanish health authorities claimed that they identified a strange case of a man who is spreading dengue through sex. This is the first-ever evidence that showed dengue infection can be transmitted via sexual intercourse.

Susana Jimenez from the Madrid region's public health department said that a 41-year-old Spanish man, based in Madrid, received the dengue infection after having sex with his male partner. They also mentioned that the other man contracted dengue during his visit to Cuba where he was infected by mosquito bite. In September doctors confirmed that the 41-year-old man has dengue but they shocked to know that he did not travel to a country where the disease is common.

As per Jimenez, his male partner had the same symptom as the 41-year-old man but he visited Cuba and the Dominican Republic from where he got infected. Later analysis of their sperm samples showed that "not only did they have dengue but that it was exactly the same virus which circulates in Cuba." In an email to AFP, the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), whose main mission is to strengthen Europe's defences against infectious diseases, stated that this case is the "first sexual transmission of the dengue virus among men who have sex with men."

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