First case of dengue spread by sex confirmed

MADRID – Spanish health authorities confirmed Friday a case of a man spreading dengue through sex, a world first for a virus which until recently was thought to be transmitted only by mosquitos.

The case concerns a 41-year-old man from Madrid who contracted dengue after having sex with his male partner who picked up the virus from a mosquito bite during a trip to Cuba, said Susana Jimenez of the Madrid region’s public health department.

His dengue infection was confirmed in September and it puzzled doctors

because he had not traveled to a country where the disease, which causes severe flu-like symptoms such as high fever and body aches, is common, she added.

“His partner presented the same symptoms as him but lighter around 10 days earlier, and he had previously visited Cuba and the Dominican Republic,” Jimenez said.

“An analysis of their sperm was carried out and it revealed that not only did they have dengue but that it was exactly the same virus which circulates in Cuba.”

A “likely” case of sexual transmission of dengue between a man and a woman was the subject of a recent scientific article in South Corea, Jimenez said.

In an e-mail sent to AFP, the Stockholm-based European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which monitors health and disease in Europe, said this was “to our knowledge, the first sexual transmission of the dengue


virus among men who have sex with men.”

According to the World Health Organization’s website, dengue is transmitted mainly by the Aedes Aegypti mosquito, which thrives in densely-populated tropical climates and breeds in stagnant pools of water.

It is most serious – and deadly – in children, especially young girls, though scientists don’t know why.

Dengue is most commonly caught by people traveling to hotter climates such as southeast Asia, Africa, Australia, the Caribbean and South and Central America.

source: philstar.com

Are Swedes having less sex? The government wants to know

STOCKHOLM — Worried that Swedes aren't having enough sex, the government wants to analyze the bedroom activities of its citizens in a major new study.

It's been 20 years since the last in-depth study of the sex habits of the Scandinavian welfare state, so Public Health Minister Gabriel Wikstrom says it's high time for another survey.

One of the goals of the investigation, set to be completed in 2019, is to find out whether there's any truth to Swedish tabloid reports that Swedes are having less sex than they used to.

"It's important to investigate whether that is the case and if so, what the reason is," he wrote Friday in an opinion piece in the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.


If stress and other health issues are affecting Swedes' sex lives, he said, "that is also a political problem."

Morgan Eklund, an official in Wikstrom's office, said the minister was referring primarily to a 2013 survey of 3,000 people by the Aftonbladet tabloid, which found that lovemaking is on the wane in Sweden, a country with a reputation of being sexually liberated.


Eklund said the survey was not scientific enough to be used as the basis of government policies "but it points in a direction that can be interesting to follow up."

In a separate article on the government's website, Wikstrom said the Social Democratic-led government needs better information about people's sex habits to guide its policies related to sexual and reproductive health.

"Sex is an area that strongly influences people's health, so we can't just talk about things like, for example, venereal disease, but also things that are positive and lust-filled about sex," Wikstrom said.

The study will be carried out by the Public Health Agency of Sweden.

source: philstar.com

Weekly sex makes for happy couples: US study

How much sex is enough? Just once a week is all it takes for optimal happiness among married heterosexual couples and those in long-term relationships, said a US study Wednesday.

The findings are based on surveys of more than 30,000 Americans collected over four decades, and are published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

"Although more frequent sex is associated with greater happiness, this link was no longer significant at a frequency of more than once a week," said lead researcher Amy Muise, a social psychologist and postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto-Mississauga.

"Our findings suggest that it's important to maintain an intimate connection with your partner, but you don't need to have sex everyday as long as you're maintaining that connection."

Researchers noted that the study was not designed to show cause-and-effect, so it remains unknown whether happiness leads to weekly sex, or if weekly sex arouses more joy in life.

The study was also limited to people in romantic relationships, not single people.

"In fact, there was no association between sexual frequency and well-being for single people," said Muise.

The findings were also consistent across age groups, gender and the length of the relationship -- whether months or decades.

Muise said couples should discuss whether their sexual needs are being met, rather than simply press for more sex.

"It's important to maintain an intimate connection with your partner without putting too much pressure on engaging in sex as frequently as possible," she said.

source: interaksyon.com