What is Dengue Fever?
Causes:
The dengue fever is known to be caused due to a virus that gets transmitted from one individual to another by a mosquito. Dengue fever is also known to be the break bone fever wherein it can lead to severe flu like medical condition. It is known to be caused due to four varied types of viruses and also mostly spreads by the Aedes mosquitoes. Currently there are no vaccinations yet for dengue hence the best method would be to stay protected and prevent to get bitten by the mosquitoes. The treatment would be possible if the diagnosis is known to occur even before the patient develops signs of DSS or DHF.
Treatment:
Currently there are no specific form of treatment for this medical condition but the most important thing when an individual is diagnosed with dengue then it becomes important to control the fever and the pain which is associated with this condition by using paracetamol and also increasing the intake of fluids so as to reduce the symptoms from aggravating. Since dengue is a virus there is no specific kind of cure of treatment for it but intervention would help anytime based on how severe is the condition. In case of mild forms of dengue, the treatment would involve, ensuring the body is not dehydrated since a rise in body temperature as well as vomiting may tend to dehydrate the body hence the individual would always ensure to drink clean and plenty of water. You can also go in for rehydration salts which help in replacing the minerals and fluids present in the body.
Symptoms:
The symptoms caused due to dengue can range from being mild to severe form and the severe forms would mostly include dengue shock syndrome or DSS and the dengue haemorrhagic fever or DHF. These severities would mostly need the individual to be hospitalised. An individual suffering from dengue would experience excessive bleeding. This is mostly known to occur to those individuals who have repeated episodes of dengue.
- High fever: One of the most common symptom of dengue is sudden rise in the body temperature which can go above 106 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Severe headache: The individual suffering from dengue would also experience severe case of headache.
- Swelling of the lymph glands: One of the other key symptoms of dengue fever would be the swelling of the lymph glands.
- Individuals suffering from dengue would also experience pain in the joints and muscles mostly during the night time.
- Rashes on the skin: There would be rashes on the skin which can develop between two to five days just after the early fever. This can also turn out to be a sign of dengue fever.
- Apart from headache and muscle pain the individual may also experience signs of nausea which is again quite common in the dengue victims.
- Dengue fever can also lead to irritation in the stomach thereby making the individual to vomit.
The mild form of symptoms is mostly known to appear up to seven days after the individual has been bitten by the mosquito that is known to carry the virus. Those symptoms would include rashes on the body which may appear and then disappear to again reappear, intense case of headache, pain occurring behind the eyes, muscles and joints which tend to ache and feeling vomiting or nauseous. The symptoms are to mostly disappear just after a week’s time and the mild case of dengue would rarely involve any kind of serious or fatal kind of complications.
Medications in the form of painkillers would turn out to be really helpful hence one can go in for paracetamol or Tylenol. These medicines are known to reduce the fever and also provide relief from the pain. It is not advisable to go in for NSAIDs such as ibuprofen or aspirin since they can increase the chance of internal bleeding in the individual. In case if the dengue gets severe then the individual may need to go in for intravenous or IV fluid supplementation or also called as drip only if the individual is not able to take in fluids through the mouth. For patients suffering from severe case of dehydration would need to go in for blood transfusion.
