DENGUE FEVER

DENGUE FEVER

Dengue is a serious viral infection prevalent mostly in the tropical countries like India, Africa etc.

Causes: It is transmitted by an infected female Aedes aegypti mosquito. When the mosquito bites a person infected with dengue, the dengue virus enters the body of that particular mosquito. When the infected mosquito bites a healthy human being, the dengue virus enters the human body and the person shows the symptoms of dengue.

Symptoms:

  • High-grade fever with chills. Fever is as high as 104*F
  • Severe headaches
  • Severe joints and muscle pains
  • Severe pain in eyeballs especially while moving the eyes.
  • The appearance of skin rash mostly on the abdomen and limbs.
  • Nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite
  • Internal and external bleeding in the body

Dengue fever should be suspected when the patient complains of very high temperature and severe body pain. While giving the history the patient says, I feel as if each bone of mine is broken.When a practitioner gets to hear such kind of words or description by a patient, he should investigate that patient for dengue fever immediately.

Dengue fever is also known as the Break bone fever. Platelet counts start decreasing fast in the blood in such patients. Platelets are responsible for stopping the bleeding occurring anywhere in the body. The decrease in a number of platelets increases chances of hemorrhage from various parts of the body in the patients suffering from this disease.

Diagnosis:

Diagnosis is confirmed by doing Dengue IgM test along with other blood tests like CBC ESR, Liver function test, PCR and virus isolation tests are the confirmatory tests for the Dengue fever.

Prevention:

The spread of this disease can be reduced by taking the following measures.

  • As far as possible wear clothes that cover the skin of the whole body. This prevents the skin exposure to the mosquitoes.
  • Use mosquito repellents in the room
  • Use nets and screens on windows.
  • Avoid storing water in bathrooms and kitchen as dengue-spreading mosquitoes breed in clean and stagnant water.
  • Avoid keeping plants in the house. Because this is an ideal ground for the mosquito breeding.

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