On Friday, 8th November 2019, Spanish health authorities confirmed a case of a man spreading dengue through s*x. This is a world-first for a virus which, until recently, was thought to be transmitted only by mosquitos.

The case concerns a 41-year-old man from Madrid who contracted dengue after having s*x with his male partner. His partner picked up the virus from a mosquito bite during a trip to Cuba. Susana Jimenez of the Madrid region’s public health department made this known.

Doctors confirmed his dengue infection in September. The disease causes severe flu-like symptoms such as high fever and body aches. This puzzled doctors because he had not travelled to a country where the disease is common.

Jimenez said:

“His partner presented the same symptoms as him but lighter around ten days earlier, and he had previously visited Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

“An analysis of their sperm was carried out and it revealed that not only did they have dengue but that it was exactly the same virus which circulates in Cuba.”

A “likely’ case of s*xual transmission of dengue between a man and a woman was the subject of a recent scientific article in South Corea, Jimenez said.

In an e-mail sent to AFP, the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said this was “to our knowledge, the first s*xual transmission of the dengue virus among men who have s*x with men.” The ECDC monitors health and disease in Europe.

According to the World Health Organisation’s website, the Aedes Aegypti mosquito mainly transmits dengue. The mosquito thrives in densely-populated tropical climates and breeds in stagnant pools of water.

It is most serious — and deadly — in children, especially young girls though scientists don’t know why.

People travelling to hotter climates are most commonly at risk of catching Dengue. These climates include southeast Asia, Africa, Australia, the Caribbean and South and Central America.