What is it?
Dengue is an infectious disease caused by a virus. It is also known as breakbone fever, a name derived from the characteristic joint pains it often causes. The virus occurs in urban areas in many tropical countries.
Symptoms include:
- fever
- headache
- muscle pain
- skin rash (which may appear after a few days)
- bleeding (rare)
How do you catch it?
Anyone who is in an area where dengue occurs can catch the disease. The virus is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito, such as the yellow fever mosquito or the Asian tiger mosquito. The disease is not passed directly from person to person. The mosquitoes that transmit dengue bite during the daytime. The incubation period is usually between 4 and 7 days after being bitten by a mosquito infected with dengue.
How do you prevent it?
You can reduce the risk of dengue infection by lowering your chances of being bitten by a mosquito. You can do this by wearing covering clothing, using mosquito nets and applying insect repellent, in any case during the daytime, the period when the mosquitoes that transmit dengue are active. There is no vaccine against dengue.
In addition to the conditions at your destination, your personal circumstances and travel plans are decisive factors in the preparations you may want or need to make before you travel. You can come to us for expert travel-health advice.
The above description is only a general, brief and simple account and is intended purely for information. No rights can be derived from it. Personal advice is given exclusively during a consultation with a specially trained Certified Travel Medicine Doctor or Travel Medicine Assistant.