Dengue - Simple Truths and Facts

Truths and Facts about Dengue

- Dengue is a disease caused by Aedes aegypti virus carrying mosquitos. They are striped body and day biting mosquitos that lay eggs in the clean, stagnant waters. Old mosquitoes when they leave the water stays in dark corners.

- Dengue fever is usually characterized by fever, rash, headaches and joint and body pains. Other symptoms of dengue fever is weakness, swollen glands and sometimes pain around the eyes.

- Since Dengue fever is caused by virus, there is no specific medicine or treatment to it. The only treatment given to the victims is relief of the symptoms not really cure of illness.

- Acute phase of illness usually lasts one to two weeks of fever and myalgias.

- Dengue fever affects not only infants and young children, but as well as adults.

- Prevention of the illness is still first cure. Cleanliness of surroundings is imperative.

Dengue Prevention and Treatment

In every disease, mild to fatal, prevention is still best rather than cure. The same goes for dengue. So here are some tips to prevent from being a victim:

Dengue Prevention and Control

Prevention is better than cure. It is an old saying that never goes old. Health concerns are very important. If we can prevent getting sick why not do it? Medicine is expensive, so is hospitalization. So to avoid it I'm giving a few tips to prevent us from becoming a dengue victims.

1. Always observed cleanliness both inside and outside of our home.
2. Cover water drums and pails all times so that mosquitoes cannot breed on them.
3. If you have a flower vaces in you home or work area, always replace their water at least once a week.
4. Clear your house of tin cars, jars and bottles that can collect and hold waters if they are not used.
5. Clean gutters and dark corners of your house, old mosquitoes stays their after leaving the waters.
6. There is no vaccine available to dengue but we can try to prevent it by using mosquito repellant sprays that contain DEET.

In the event that the mosquito still make it to bite you with all those preventions you make, here are some tips to treat them the illness.

Treatment for Dengue Fever 

 

There is no known vaccine for the dengue fever. Since this fever is caused by a virus, there is no specific medicine or antibiotic for its treatment. 

1. Lots of fluid intake and total rest would be very helpful.

2. Do not take any regular fever medicine without the doctor's supervision. It may worsen the situation and may cuase hemorrhagic complications.

3. Tylenol and codeine can be taken for severe headache and joint and muscle pains. But like alreay said above, better if with doctor's consent.

4. Dengue haemorrhagic fever such as vomiting, bleeding, high fever and severe abdominal pain is a lethal complication mostly affects childrens. Blood transfusion is often recommended to replace the virus infected blood in the body.

5. In case of appearance of any of it's symptoms, call or visit a physician immediately.

dengue

It is rainy season and the mosquitoes are everywhere. Mosquito bites are dangerous. It brought us different diseases. The most common of all is the dengue. Some provinces and cities already declared a 'state of emergency' just because of dengue fever. Dengue is not a simple disease. It could be fatal. And medication is costly.

So, in simple ways, I want to help in making people aware of this disease, how can it be prevented and what are the symptoms of it in order for us to be able to protect ourselves.

What is dengue?

DENGUE is a disease caused by Aedes aegypti virus carrying mosquitos.

We should be aware of this disease. It is not contagious but it isn’t choosy of a victim.

Dengue is transmitted by the day-biting, striped Aedes aegypti mosquitoes carrying a virus. These mosquitoes are very active during the day and specially during the rainy seasons. They mostly lay eggs in a clean, stagnant water such as flower pots, plastic bags, or cans. Transfer of the disease is not person-to-person. There is no such thing. From a single bite of a mosquito carrying the virus is enough for you to get sick. But it is also possible that a mosquito biting a dengue victim to carry the virus and transfer it to another person.

Symptoms of Dengue Victim

Sometimes dengue is faulted to a simple fever or flu. The victims usually ignore them what they feel or what their illness is.

So it is better if we understand and if we can tell the difference from a simple fever to dengue.

Here are some of the most common symptoms:

• High fever (as much as 40c) which may last 2 to 7 days. Sometimes the fever will be gone for a day or two. Then returns again.
• Feeling of weakness
• Skin rashes. Tiny red spots on the skin called petechiae. Not very visible. You can try putting pressure in the upper arm to stop the flow of blood for a few minutes so that the spot can be seen.
• Joint and muscle pain
• Vomiting a dark-colored matter
• Unsually dark stools
• Sometimes nosebleeding when the fever starts to subside
• Abdominal pain
• Pain upon moving the eyes.
• Headache.
• Chills.
• Sometimes swollen glands.