The Virginia Department of Health said Aug. 4 it has identified the state’s first locally acquired case of dengue.
The patient lives in the Fairfax and Loudoun county area and had not traveled outside Virginia before falling ill.
State officials traced the infection to an earlier traveler who had contracted dengue abroad. A local Aedes mosquito bit that infectious patient, then transmitted the virus to the second resident. The health department said it has found no evidence of continued local spread.
The department called the overall risk of acquiring dengue in Virginia low.
For clinicians, the case is a prompt to take travel histories from patients with acute fever and to consider dengue even in those who have not traveled, particularly when fever presents alongside eye, muscle, joint or bone pain. The department said providers who suspect dengue in a non-traveler should alert their local health department and order NAAT/RT-PCR and IgM antibody testing during the acute phase.
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