Hurghada is malaria-free. Its recent dengue came in autumn and early winter.

Yes. Room mosquitoes are a recurring complaint in Hurghada's hotels, and Aedes aegypti, the dengue mosquito, is established along this coast. There's no malaria, since WHO certified Egypt malaria-free in October 2024, and the dengue evidence comes from outbreaks in 2017 and 2023.

Dengue on the Red Sea

Aedes aegypti was eradicated from Egypt in 1963 and has been reported again since 2011, and entomologists confirmed it in Hurghada and El Quseir in 2017. That year, two dengue cases diagnosed in Moscow were traced to Hurghada, and a dengue outbreak in El Quseir was confirmed in local patients and in a mosquito sample.

The 2023 season was bigger. German travelers brought home 36 dengue infections from Egypt that year, against 0 to 8 a year from 2017 to 2022, and 29 of them began between September and December, according to a report in Eurosurveillance published in 2024. Of the 32 travelers whose stay was known, 30 had been in Red Sea governorate and 23 in the Hurghada area alone, which the authors define to include El Gouna, Makadi Bay, Soma Bay and Safaga. Others stayed in El Quseir, Port Ghalib and Marsa Alam.

A mosquito survey in five districts of Red Sea governorate from April 2023 to March 2024 found dengue virus in Aedes aegypti from all five, with three dengue serotypes circulating, a peak in December 2023 and none found from June to September 2023. In 2024, four Israeli travelers caught dengue in Sharm el-Sheikh, and a CDC journal report suggests ferries from Hurghada may have carried the virus across. We found no dengue reports for Hurghada, El Gouna, Safaga or Marsa Alam from 2025 or 2026.

Malaria is off the list. WHO's certification on October 20, 2024 followed at least three consecutive years without local transmission, and the CDC's Egypt page recommends no malaria medicine.

Rooms, gardens and balconies

The coast is very dry, so Aedes breed in man-made water: irrigated hotel gardens, flowerpots, roof tanks and balconies. The German study's authors thought sea wind limits mosquitoes on the shorefront and that mosquito control works better in hotel grounds than in town, and 12 of the travelers who caught dengue had stayed in private homes in Hurghada.

Aedes bite by day, with peaks after sunrise and in the late afternoon. Put repellent on over sunscreen in the morning, again after swimming and again before dinner. Keep balcony and room doors shut, run the air-conditioning, and ask for the room to be sprayed if mosquitoes get in. Our dengue & Zika routine has the full schedule. Boat days to Giftun Island and the reefs tend to be close to bite-free.

When to go

Keep the daytime routine in every month, and be most careful from September to December, when most 2023 traveler cases began and the virus in local mosquitoes peaked. Egypt's spring and summer dengue dates come from Sharm el-Sheikh in April–June 2024 and from Qena, in the Nile Valley, in July 2023. Summer is the hottest stretch on the coast.

Where you're going

Adding the Nile? The Luxor briefing covers the cruise, and the Egypt briefing covers Cairo and Sharm el-Sheikh.

What travelers report

Paraphrased from hotel reviews, newest first where a date is given, and linked so you can read them in full. Your room and whether the balcony door stays shut change the picture.

• Caves Beach Resort, Hurghada · November · 2025

  A November 2025 guest got only one bite each but noticed other guests with many bites. TripAdvisor ↗

• Hilton Hurghada Plaza · June · 2024

  A June 2024 guest counted 57 bites on their legs alone and suggested the hotel warn guests about mosquitoes. TripAdvisor ↗

• El Karma Aqua Beach Resort, Hurghada · October · 2021

  An October 2021 reviewer titled the review 'Serious Mosquito problems' and warned that mosquitoes get into the room if the balcony or main door is left open. TripAdvisor ↗

• Utopia Beach Club, El Quseir

  A guest titled the review 'Mosquittos' after getting several mosquito bites; the hotel replied that sand flies are everywhere on the Red Sea and that management had worked to reduce them. TripAdvisor ↗

One rule outlasts the trip. Any fever during the trip or in the two weeks after it means a doctor visit, and you tell the doctor you were on the Red Sea, especially with a rash, headache or joint pain. Doctors at home may not expect dengue from Egypt. Bitten and worried? Our bitten in a dengue zone guide has the 14-day calendar.

Traveler questions