Dengue fever is the result of a virus that is transferred from person to person by the bite of a tiger striped mosquito. Dengue normally starts with high fever, chills, headache, pain behind the eyes, and joint and muscle pain making the individual look flushed with a rash appearing about three to four days after the onset of fever. The rash spreads to the rest of the body and shows up often as an swelling of the lymph nodes.
Dengue, in its most common form has an incubation phase of about |five to eight days from the start of fever. It is worth noting that a person has fever for about four to seven days and it is common for most people to recover without any major complications. However, long term effects and complications cannot be fully ruled out in all cases, with some taking many months to recover and some having fatal recurrences.
This arises particularly in regions where dengue is endemic and there is the chance of repeated infections and relapses. The most serious of effects or complications are dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DSS).
Dengue hemorrhagic fever known as Hemorrhagic dengue, Dengue shock syndrome, Philippine hemorrhagic fever, Thai hemorrhagic fever or Singapore hemorrhagic fever can lead to dengue shock syndrome and is fatal in around 1/20 cases that have a re-infection.
The severity of the impact of dengue in the form of dengue hemorrhagic fever rests in essence on one contracting a different virus after building immunity to one particular sort of virus. The risk factors increase with having antibodies to dengue virus from a prior infection, being younger than 12, female, or Caucasian.
Look out for the effects of dengue hemorrhagic fever in the person being not only restless and irritable, but also becoming sweaty and developing shock-like symptoms. Minute spots of blood and bleeding could take place on the skin with substantial patches below the skin and minor injuries resulting in severe bleeding. Some of the early symptoms that might become noticed are decreased appetite, fever, headache, joint pain, malaise, muscle pain, and vomiting.
Then you could notice more acute indications like restlessness followed by skin discoloration caused by the flow of blood into the tissues from ruptured blood vessels in mucous membranes especially in the mouth. There could also be a sweeping rash followed by flat round spots caused by internal bleeding in the skin from the capillaries.
This dengue situation could worsen and show up as a shock-like state, cold clammy extremities, and sweatiness. A GP could examine the patient and find other indications like enlarged liver, reduced blood pressure, red eyes, swollen glands, and weak and rapid pulse.
The treatment might include a cure of the indications and a transfusion of fresh blood or platelets to correct bleeding concerns, IV fluids and electrolytes to right electrolyte imbalances and oxygen therapy for treating the unusually low blood oxygen level and hydration with intravenous (IV) fluids to treat dehydration. In addition, supervision in an intensive care unit is usually essential.
It is vital to get to your medical professional in time during recurrent attacks and to make sure of personal hygiene and cleanliness at home and its environs. Using fully-covering clothing, mosquito netting, mosquito repellent containing DEET and avoiding travelling while mosquitoes are prevalent would help to contain dengue.
Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on several subjects, but is currently involved with Electronic Bug Killer devices. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at electronic insect killer