Can I contract dengue more than once?

Yes, you can get dengue up to four times in your lifetime, because there are four different serotypes, or strains, of the dengue virus.

If you are infected with one serotype, you end up with lifetime protection against that exact strain, but you only gain temporary partial immunity against the other three. What really matters is that later infections with a different serotype bring a much higher chance of severe dengue, such as Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever or Dengue Shock Syndrome. This happens because of an immunological process called antibody-dependent enhancement.