Second Dengue Fever Case in Lviv
A second case of Dengue fever has been confirmed in Lviv over a three-month period. The patient, a 24-year-old resident, fell ill after returning from the Maldives, where she was bitten by mosquitoes. The diagnosis was confirmed by the virology laboratory of Ukraine's Public Health Center. Natalia Timko-Ivanchenko, the Director General of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, provided this information.
The patient sought medical care with complaints of a bitter taste in her mouth, fever, general weakness, headache, and muscle pain. She was treated at the Lviv Regional Infectious Diseases Hospital for a week and a half and has since been discharged home. Dengue fever, a mosquito-borne viral illness, is not endemic to Ukraine but is increasingly seen in returning travelers.
Recent Case History in the Lviv Region
This marks the second Dengue fever case recorded in the Lviv region in the last three months. The first case was registered in November 2025, involving a 31-year-old foreigner who arrived on a business trip to Lviv from India, where he had spent a week. Prior to November 2025, no such cases had been reported in the region.
Dengue fever is prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions, including Indonesia, where the risk of infection is high, especially in urban and suburban areas. Potential sources of the infection include:
- Infected humans
- Monkeys
- Mosquitoes of the Aedes genus and Stegomyia subgenus
- Bats
Doctors advise Ukrainians traveling to countries with high populations of carrier mosquitoes to bring insect repellent. In this latest case, the patient noted mosquito bites in the Maldives specifically due to a lack of repellent.
This incident underscores the importance of being aware of the risks associated with travel to Dengue-endemic regions. It also highlights the necessity of implementing preventive measures, such as using repellents and protective clothing, to minimize the risk of mosquito bites.
Given the rising number of cases in Ukraine, it is crucial to monitor one's health after returning from travel to potentially high-risk regions.