RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – It is the first time in the world that a case like this has been reported, since until now the virus was believed to be transmitted only by mosquito bites.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control confirmed that this Spanish case was, “according to their knowledge, the first case of sexually transmitted dengue virus between two men”.
“A suspected case of sexual transmission between a woman and a man had already been the subject of a (scientific) article in South Korea,” said Spanish medical epidemiologist Susana Jimenez of the General Directorate of Public Health in Madrid.
Virus contracted in Cuba
According to Jimenez, the case diagnosed in the Spanish capital is “that of a 41-year-old man infected during intercourse with his partner, who had contracted the virus during a trip to Cuba,” where he had been stung by a mosquito.
This victim’s contamination in Madrid was confirmed in late September and has intrigued scientists since he had not traveled to a dengue fever-endemic country. It was also found that there was no evidence of contamination by mosquitoes in Spain, as no insects were found where they were located.
“His partner exhibited the same symptoms as him, albeit milder, some ten days earlier and had traveled to Cuba and the Dominican Republic,” said the doctor. The tests showed that both of them had dengue.
“An examination of their spermatozoa showed that it was not only dengue but also the same type of the virus that circulates in Cuba,” said the Spanish epidemiologist.
“It is a breakthrough, information of global importance: to find another way in which the virus can be transmitted,” admitted Susana Jimenez.
In countries where dengue is endemic and the disease is transmitted by mosquitoes, “we cannot say that sexual transmission does not exist. Until now it was not expected because we always believed it was the mosquito,” she concluded.
Despite this confirmation by the Spanish health authorities, the World Health Organization continues to state on its website that “dengue is transmitted by the sting of the Aedes aegypti mosquito, a transmitter of four types of the disease”.
Source: RFI