By Demion McTair. Updated 10:50 a.m., Monday, August 31, 2020, Atlantic Standard Time (GMT-4).
Kingstown, St. Vincent (ONE NEWS SVG) – The Ministry of Health, Wellness, and the Environment is advising that persons who contract a strain of dengue fever and recover, can be infected with another strain of the virus.
In a Facebook post, the ministry said “After you’ve recovered from dengue fever, you have immunity to the type of virus that infected you — but not to the other three dengue fever virus types”.
“The risk of developing severe dengue fever, also known as dengue hemorrhagic fever, actually increases if you’re infected a second, third or fourth time,” the ministry says.
The ministry says “Dengue fever is caused by any one of four types of dengue viruses spread by mosquitoes that thrive in and near human homes. When a mosquito bites a person infected with a dengue virus, the virus enters the mosquito. When the infected mosquito then bites another person, the virus enters that person’s bloodstream,” the ministry says.
The ministry had been stepping up its provision of information regarding dengue fever after it reported that there has been an above normal number of cases recorded this year, compared to last year.
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