In an e-mail sent to AFP, the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which monitors health and disease in Europe, said this was “to our knowledge, the first sexual transmission of the dengue virus among men who have sex with men.”
According to the World Health Organisation’s website, dengue is transmitted mainly by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which 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. Dengue is most commonly caught by people travelling to hotter climates such as Southeast Asia, Africa, Australia, the Caribbean and South and Central America.
