The Ramón y Cajal hospital in Madrid has diagnosed in a young man who had not traveled to risk areas the first case of dengue due to sexual transmission registered in Europe, according to the newspaper El País and confirmed to Efe the General Directorate of Public Health from the Community of Madrid.
At the end of September, two cases of dengue in two men residing in the municipality of Madrid were notified from the Ramón y Cajal to the Epidemiological Surveillance Network of the General Directorate of Public Health.
Upon notification of the cases, the General Directorate of Public Health initiated an epidemiological investigation whose result determined that it was an imported case (that is, that contracted the infection in another country) and another native one .
The first reported case was that of a man who had not left Spain in the 45 days prior to the onset of symptoms, thus being an indigenous case.
His partner had presented a very similar picture ten days before and had traveled to Cuba and the Dominican Republic, during the incubation period , so it was considered an imported case.
Both cases have been confirmed by the laboratory of the National Center for Microbiology of the Carlos III Health Institute.
Subsequently, the entomological investigations did not detect the presence of the mosquito vector of the disease either in the residence or in any of the places in the Community of Madrid visited by the two men.
The two men had unprotected sex at the beginning of September, so semen samples that have been positive were studied.
Genetic sequencing has confirmed that the virus strain found in all samples is identical and coincides with the one currently circulating in Cuba , explains the Ministry of Health in a statement released this afternoon.
In the absence of data that support a possible vector transmission, the sexual route is considered the most likely of contagion, he adds.
Uncommon route
The importance of this case is that it is the first described of probable sexual transmission of dengue virus in an area without the presence of vector mosquitoes , and the first described in men who have sex with men (MSM).
"In any case, it would be a rare route and of low epidemiological relevance , so the risk to the population derived from this finding is considered very low, adds Sanidad.
It is the first case of indigenous sexual transmission in Spain and in Spain and in Europe. There is only one similar case in the scientific literature in South Korea .
Dengue is a disease caused by a virus that is usually transmitted through the bite of a mosquito and is endemic in several countries in America, Southeast Asia and Africa.
The clinical picture is characterized by a generalized malaise, high fever, headache and a rash on the face that extends through the neck, chest and extremities.
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