“Does dengue virus spread from one person to another?”

Dengue is only spread person to person by a mosquito bite. The main preventive measures are by mosquito bite prevention- insect repellent, night netting and not going out from dusk to dawn. There is a new Dengue vaccine but it may increase risks of severe Dengue disease and I would avoid it until the risks and benefits are better defined.

Dengue virus is transmitted from person to person INDIRECTLY through a "vector." The vector is a mosquito. There are two types of mosquito species that can transmit dengue, both of them are of the genus Aedes. The mosquito lands on an infected person and then the mosquito becomes infected. About a week later, the infected mosquito is able to transmit the virus into the next human that it bites. Dengue was originally a monkey disease, but it began infecting humans a couple hundred years ago, and the mosquito species traveled around the world on cargo ships. Now these Aedes mosquito species are very common in many parts of the world. The disease is most common in hot and rainy places or places with a rainy season that tends to allow lots of mosquito breeding to take place. Even though these mosquito species are common in the southern US, dengue is super rare to almost non-existent in our country due to the fact that there are not that many people outside in large groups getting tons of mosquito bites. Almost all of the dengue cases in the US have been immigrants or travelers. You cannot "catch" dengue from a dengue patient. Even if a mosquito bit the dengue patient, it would take around a week for the mosquito to be infectious. Chances are that you are not going to get bitten by that mosquito, at least not in the US. There are four different types of dengue virus, and you will not get immune if you get one type and then get exposed to a different type. This means that you can get dengue four different times. Dengue is a potentially deadly disease. You don't want to get dengue. I suggest wearing DEET (bug spray) when you travel to subtropical or tropical areas. You can get the moist DEET wipes and put them in your luggage, the single application kind. This is because on an airplane, you can't bring the aerosol. Also, don't expect to purchase DEET in other countries. I was in China in the mountains and they sold cheap perfume to
ward off the mosquito swarms. It did NOT WORK as you can imagine. Anything that gets rid of mosquito populations will work. There is a new vaccine against dengue that is out. Also, new vaccines against mosquito saliva might protect against a broad spectrum of mosquito virus diseases. Ultimately, the answer is going to be VACCINES. Got to love vaccines. I do.

Dengue certainly spreads from person to person; the mode of transmission is mosquito bite. The mosquito name is Aedes aegypti. The best way of prevention is vector (mosquito) control.