Truth About Dengue Fever
Dengue fever (DF) is a mosquito borne disease and it is caused by any one of the closely related virus types. The four types of virus are actually referred by DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3, and DENV-4. Classic dengue fever is otherwise called as 'break-bone' fever because it has the ability to cause severe pain in the muscles and joints that can our bones feel like crushing. The immunity for a particular type of virus will have no effect in the prevention of other types of viruses. This makes dengue a very serious and fatal when not treated properly.
Transition of the dengue fever is the big concern. This is actually transmitted with a help of female mosquito called Aedes aegypti. The male mosquitoes will not bite and collect blood from humans. Only female Aedes aegypti will bite and collect blood that too only in the day time. A mosquito after biting a dengue infected person will become a spreading medium in about 8 to 10 days. A single bite in the human body is enough to transmit the virus. This mosquito population is very high in tropical and subtropical regions. In more than 100 countries it is found be endemic, and also epidemic that it has caused thousands of death in a small period.
Dengue fever or classic dengue is not that fatal usually starts with the symptoms of fever, head ache with eye pain, pain in the joints and muscles. Immediately after the symptoms it is advised to consult a physician to get proper treatment. The incubation period for dengue fever varies between 3 to 14 days. This can affect both adults and children but the latter is said to be more at risk. If this dengue fever is not treated properly it can develop into dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome. Dengue hemorrhagic itself is fatal but dengue shock syndrome is 10 percent fatal that shows it is life threatening.
Symptoms and diagnosis varies or adds up for three types of dengue fever. The normal dengue fever will show symptoms like rash and joint pain which we discussed before. The symptoms of rash may appear twice in course. Then dengue hemorrhagic fever will have normal symptoms along with that, blood vessel damage, bleeding gums and bleeding nose are the additional symptoms. Dengue hemorrhagic fever symptoms are blood and lymph related. This may develop into more severe form called dengue shock syndrome which is highly fatal by giving a shock. Pressure reduces to a very low state which is called as shock.
There are no special vaccines available to control dengue virus. Still researches are going on to come up with a better vaccination. Only thing we can do now is protection against mosquito bites. These mosquitoes can lay eggs everywhere near human breeding places. The containers, water stagnant places and other type of storage tanks should be cleaned often and covered properly. Using mosquito repellents will provide a temporary solution, although wearing long sleeve shirts and long pants will help adults and children in avoiding mosquito bites.