How to Prevent Dengue, at Home and When You Travel

All four dengue viruses spread to people mainly through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito. There is no dengue vaccine available in the United States, so the best protection is avoiding bites — by day and by night, since these mosquitoes bite at both.

Avoid mosquito bites

• Use insect repellent.
• Wear loose-fitting, long-sleeved shirts and long pants.
• Control mosquitoes in and around your home.

Traveling to an area with dengue

Before you go

• Check country-specific travel recommendations, health notices and warnings.
• Get pre-travel care from a travel clinic or your health care provider.
• Pack an EPA-registered insect repellent.
• Pack acetaminophen (called paracetamol outside the United States) to manage fever and body aches in case you get dengue.

While you are there

• Take steps against mosquito bites for yourself and your family.
• Stay somewhere with air conditioning or with screens on windows and doors.
• Sleep under a bed net if you have no air-conditioned or screened room, or if you sleep outdoors.
• See a health care provider if you get a fever or other dengue symptoms.

When you get home

• For 3 weeks, keep preventing mosquito bites even if you feel fine, so you don't pass dengue to local mosquitoes that could spread it to other people.
• Watch for dengue symptoms for 2 weeks.
• If you develop a fever or other symptoms, see a provider and tell them where you traveled.

Dengue vaccines

• No dengue vaccine is currently available for use in the United States.
• In 2021 the vaccine Dengvaxia was approved for children aged 9–16 years who had a laboratory-confirmed past dengue infection and lived where dengue is common.
• In 2024 its manufacturer, Sanofi-Pasteur, stopped producing it because of a lack of demand in the global market.
• Other dengue vaccines are approved, or in late-stage development, in other countries, but none is available in the United States.

Sources

Rewritten from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention page "Preventing Dengue" (public domain), in hubnx's own words.