Dengue fever

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Dengue fever, a mosquito-borne disease, often occurs in tropical and subtropical areas. High fever and flu are symptoms of mild dengue fever. Dengue hemorrhagic, a secure form of dengue fever, can cause severe bleeding, sudden drop in blood pressure, and death. 

There are millions of cases of dengue infection that occur worldwide every year. However, dengue fever is the most common in South Asia, the western pacific islands, Latin America and Africa. But this disease has begun to spread in other parts of the world, like Europe and Southern parts of the United States.  

Here are some symptoms of dengue fever.

Many people experience no signs and symptoms before they get infected by a dengue infection. And if the symptoms do occur, most people get mistaken for other illnesses such as flu, lasting for four to ten days after an infected mosquito bites anyone. 

Dengue fever causes high fever along with some of the symptoms given below.

  • Headache
  • Muscle, bone, or joint pain
  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Pain behind the eyes
  • Swollen glands
  • Rash

It is possible that most of the people recovered within a week, whereas in some cases, these symptoms got worse up to the level of the death of a patient. Thus, it is called severe dengue, dengue hemorrhagic fever, or dengue shock syndrome.

When our blood vessels become damaged and leaky, severe dengue happens. Due to this, our platelets begin to lower than required for the body to remain healthy. So this can lead to shock, internal bleeding, organ failure, and even death.

Here are some warning signs that usually begin after the first or second day when dengue fever goes away and may include these symptoms.

  • severe stomach pain
  • Persistent vomiting
  • Bleeding from your gums or nose
  • Blood in your urine, stools, or vomit
  • Bleeding under the skin, which might look like bruising
  • Difficult or rapid breathing
  • Fatigue
  • Irritability or restlessness

Causes 

One can be infected as a dengue patient from one of the four types of dengue fever. However, you cannot get affected by the person roaming around you, but you only get affected by the bite of an infected mosquito.

The virus gets into the mosquito when an average mosquito bites a person infected by dengue. So, when this infected mosquito bites a healthy person, the virus enters the bloodstream of the healthy person, which causes an infection making a healthy person an infected one. 

Risk factors

There are more chances of getting infected by dengue if,

One travels a lot in tropical areas, for there are more chances of exposure to the virus that causes that fever, and there are high risks of being infected in regions like Southeast Asia, the western pacific islands, Latin America and Africa.

Prevention 

One can be safe from this fever through vaccination. Dengvaxia, a dengue fever vaccine, is approved for people of the ages who are between the ages of 9 to 45. This vaccine is given to such patients three times over 12 months.