Funchal, Portugal, Feb. 19, 2025 (Lusa) - Two people living in Madeira were diagnosed with dengue fever at the beginning of January and are now out of the infectious period, said the Regional Secretary for Health and Civil Protection, stressing that no other suspected cases have been identified.
In a statement, the regional authority said on Tuesday evening that the two autochthonous cases of dengue were laboratory confirmed by the National Health Institute Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA) and refer to residents in the area where the trap that captured infected mosquitoes in the third week of January is located, in Funchal. ‘The epidemiological investigation, the responsibility of the ASR (Regional Health Authority), confirms that these cases had symptoms compatible with dengue fever at the beginning of January, and are outside the infectious period, so they no longer pose a risk for the emergence of new infected mosquitoes,’ said the statement.
The Department of Health and Civil Protection said that ‘at the moment, no other suspected cases of dengue have been identified’ in the region, stressing that the Regional Health Directorate and the Regional Health Authority have stepped up epidemiological and entomological surveillance activities and control actions.
‘To date, the presence of dengue virus has not been identified in mosquitoes caught since 27 January 2025, according to the analytical results of INSA,’ he explained.
On 8 February, the Department of Health and Civil Protection announced that the dengue virus had been detected in Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes in a monitoring trap in Funchal. At the time, it was unaware of any suspected or confirmed dengue cases in humans in Madeira.
Dengue is a disease caused by a virus that enters the human body through the bite of an Aedes mosquito. The most common symptoms are fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, pain around or behind the eyes, vomiting, red spots on the skin and haemorrhages.
Madeira experienced an outbreak of the disease between 2012 and 2013, with 1,080 confirmed cases of infection, mostly in the municipality of Funchal. This outbreak had not occurred in European Union countries since 1920.
The outbreak did not cause any deaths, nor were any severe forms of the infection reported.
The fight against the Aedes Aegypti mosquito is crucial to preventing diseases transmitted by this vector. Therefore, health authorities are calling on the population to eliminate mosquito breeding sites, namely small water reservoirs, and to prevent bites by using repellents and wearing long garments.
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