Dengue Fever : Don't ignore the Symptoms
Dengue
(pronounced as DENG-gay), is also
known by break bone fever or dandy fever. Dengue fever is transmitted by AEDES AEGYPTI mosquito and is provoked by one of the
four dengue viruses. Once if a person gets infected with one of the dengue
viruses, the person will establish immunity to that virus for the rest of their
life. It is acceptable for a person to get affected by all the 4 dengue viruses
in his/her lifetime. Dengue fever viruses are analogous to those viruses which
cause yellow fever and West Nile virus infection.
In
India fewer than 1 million of dengue cases get reported every year. The
national capital has encountered 9 deaths and 1,150 dengue cases last year as
reported by AIIMS, Delhi. According to National Vector Borne Disease Control
Programme (NVBDCP), about 27,879 cases of people suffering from dengue and 60
deaths were reported all across the country till 31st August, 2016.
A
relentless epidemic of dengue occurred in Delhi in the year 1996, when nearly
10,252 cases of people suffering from dengue fever and 423 deaths from dengue
fever got proclaimed.
According
to World Health Organization there are about 400 million of dengue fever cases all
around the world and 96 million requires medical treatment. WHO also estimated
that nearly 22,000 deaths occur every year and mostly among children.
Dengue
fever is not a contagious in nature as it doesn’t gets transmitted from person
to person. Dengue fever is disseminated by the bite of the mosquito nurturing
the dengue virus.
Symptoms
of dengue generally start about 4 to 7 days after the original infection. In
several cases the symptoms are mild and hence are mistaken for the symptoms of
flu or some other infection. Dengue fever is an intense syndrome of unusual
outbreak that generally follows a benign course with indications like fever,
headache, feeling of exhaustion, severe pain in the muscle and joints, swollen
lymph nodes and rashes over the whole body. Bleeding gums, red palms and soles,
extreme pain behind the eyes, are the other rare characteristic of dengue.
In
certain cases dengue fever can further gets more serious and turns into a
serious and complicated diseases called hemorrhagic fever. Hemorrhagic fever is
a very rare disease which is characterized by: lymphatic system damage,
enlargement of liver, failure of circulatory system, damaging of blood vessels.
Further
dengue hemorrhagic fever provokes dengue shock disease, which is a very serious
disorder and can leads to excessive bleeding and death also.
There
are no specific medications for the treatment of dengue infections, but pain
relievers can be used to reduce down the fever, headache and joint pains.
Ibuprofen and aspirin should be avoided as much as possible as they can cause
more bleeding.
There
is no such vaccination that can prevent dengue but our government is still
working on it. Other several ways can be adopted for the prevention for the
disease like: using mosquito repellent cream indoors and outdoors, prefer
wearing long sleeves shirt and pants, using of mosquito nets while sleeping if required.
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