Dengue fever has been spreading the past decades and occurs in smaller and larger outbreaks with regular intervals in many countries in the Americas, Africa and Asia.
A virus transmitted between people by a mosquito causes dengue fever.
There is no vaccine available.
The symptoms are flu like with high fever, headache, muscle pain and sometimes a rash.
Detection of antibodies in a blood sample.
Supportive only. No specific antiviral drugs are available.
The prevention is to avoid mosquito bites by using repellents during daytime and impregnated mosquito nets during nighttime.
There are 4 types of dengue virus, and infection with one type do not protect against the other types. You can therefore get dengue fever more than once.
In rare cases dengue can be complicated by reduced kidney function and a reduced ability of the blood to coagulate, so called “haemorrhagic” dengue. Haemorrhagic dengue is seen in about 0.2% of first time dengue infections and in about 2% of people who has had dengue before.
Travellers with dengue fever after return to their country of residence are probably just a small proportion of travellers experiencing dengue fever.
Dengue fever has been slowly spreading in the past decades, not least in the so-called “mega-cities”. One reason in that the mosquito transmitting dengue, thrives in urban surroundings.
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