What is dengue/dengue fever? It’s Causes, Symptoms, types & prevention:

Note- In this article we will get all the information related to Dengue such as-

1. What is Dengue or Dengue Fever?

2. How does dengue spread?

3. How many serotypes of dengue fever are there?

4. What are the symptoms of dengue fever?

5. Diagnosis of Dengue

1. What is Dengue or Dengue Fever?

Dengue is the name of a mosquito and the disease caused by dengue mosquito is called dengue fever.  Dengue fever is a viral disease.  Severe dengue was first recognized during dengue epidemics in the Philippines and Thailand in the 1950s.

Note- Dengue is also known as break-bone fever.

2. How does dengue fever spread?

Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne viral disease mainly transmitted by female mosquitoes of the Aedes aegypti species, besides these mosquitoes are also known to be carriers of yellow fever, Chikungunya Zika virus.  Dengue mosquito is found in tropical and sub-tropical regions.

3. How many serotypes of dengue fever are there?

The virus responsible for causing dengue is called dengue virus, which is caused by a virus of the family Flaviviridae.  There are four serotypes of dengue which means it is possible to be infected four times.  The following are the four serotypes of dengue virus-

DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3, and DENV-4.

4. What are the symptoms of dengue fever?

Dengue is a serious flower-like disease that affects infants and young children and adults, rarely causing death.  Symptoms usually last for 2 to 7 days.  The World Health Organization (WHO) divides dengue into two categories- 1. Dengue (with warning signs), 2. Severe dengue

1. Dengue (with/without warning signs) – Dengue should be suspected when body temperature reaches 40°C or 104°F or above during fever.

Its symptoms are as follows-

* Pain in muscles and joints, * terrible headache, nausea, vomiting, swollen glands, pain behind eyes etc.

2. Severe Dengue – A patient normally lives in a critical form of fever for about 3 to 7 days after the onset of the disease, in which case the patient’s fever or body temperature is falling below 38 °C.  Warning signs associated with severe dengue may appear.

Following are the symptoms of severe dengue-

* Rapid breathing, * frequent vomiting, severe abdominal pain, bleeding gums, restlessness, fatigue, bleeding with vomiting etc.

5. Diagnosis of Dengue

Several methods can be used to diagnose dengue infection, including virological tests that directly detect elements of the virus as well as serological tests that detect human derived immune components.  Patient samples collected during the first week of illness can be tested by both serological and virological methods (RT-PCR).  And of course for severe dengue with the impact and progression of the disease, the patient’s life can be saved through medical care by experienced doctors and nurses, reducing the mortality rate from 20% to 1%.  Maintenance of the patient’s body fluid volume is important for critical dengue care.

***Thank you all for reading this article.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *