Health authorities in Spain have confirmed the first ever case of dengue virus to be transmitted through sexual contact which until recently was thought to be transmitted only by mosquitos, reports bdnews24.com.
The case concerns a 41-year-old man from Madrid who contracted dengue after having sex with his male partner who picked up the virus from a mosquito bite during a trip to Cuba, reports The Telegraph.
His dengue infection was confirmed in September and it puzzled doctors because he had not travelled to a country where the disease, which causes severe flu-like symptoms such as high fever and body aches, is common, said Susana Jimenez of the Madrid region's public health department.
"His partner presented the same symptoms as him but lighter around ten days earlier, and he had previously visited Cuba and the Dominican Republic," she added.
"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 sexual transmission of dengue between a man and a woman was the subject of a recent scientific article in South Korea, she said.
Bangladesh witnessed worst dengue fever outbreak so far this year in 2019.
According to the Health Emergency Operations and Control Room of the Directorate General of Health Services or DGHS, a total of 91,053 patients suffering from dengue have received treatment in the hospitals across the country since the beginning of the year.
The government records show 50,148 patients received treatment for dengue fever from 2000 to 2018.
Dengue fever spread for the first time in the country in 2000. The government figure of patients suffering from dengue was 5,551 that year with 93 among them dying. That was the highest number of deaths due to dengue over the past 19 years.