Dengue: Don't ignore these symptoms

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne painful disease, caused by dengue virus, transmitted by Ades mosquito bite. It is a quite common disease in tropical and subtropical regions.

In India little less than 1 million of dengue cases get reported every year. 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 until 31st August, 2016. According to World Health Organization (WHO) 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 the children.

Dengue fever does not get transmitted from person to person. Dengue fever spreads by the bite of the mosquito nurturing the dengue virus.

The symptoms of dengue usually 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 other infection. Dengue fever is an intense syndrome of unusual outbreak that generally follows a benign course with indications like

In certain cases, dengue fever can further get more serious and turns into a serious and complicated diseases called haemorrhagic fever. Haemorrhagic 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 haemorrhagic 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 infection, but analgesics can be used to reduce down the fever, headache and joint pains. Medications like ibuprofen and aspirin should be avoided as they can cause bleeding.

Several ways that can be adopted for the prevention of this disease like: using mosquito repellent cream indoors and outdoors, prefer wearing long sleeves shirt and pants, using of mosquito nets while sleeping if required.