If you have a high fever and severe bodyache, please seek medical advise. We are now able to do a blood test that can detect Dengue from the first day of the fever if necessary.
Characteristics of Dengue Fever:
- Fever that lasts for 2 to 7 days
- Severe muscle ache, headache and joint pains
- Rash appearing after the fever subsides usually after the 5th day. The rash may look like a measles types rash. There may also be some pin point red spots known as petechiae that may appear.
- Abdominal discomfort
What happens when you are diagnosed with Dengue?
- If you have a fever for 5 days and the blood test reveal that your platelets have dropped to less than 150.000 you will need to do daily blood tests to monitor your platelet levels.
- If your platelets continue to fall below 80,000, you may need to be admitted to hospital
- Most patients will not need admission. Dengue can be managed at home with daily visits to the clinic.
- Make sure you get your blood checked daily
- There are no antibiotics that can be given with Dengue. It is mainly bed rest and fluids until the patient recovers.
- If the platelets are low, you should avoid any vigorous exercise or situations that may cause an injury.
- Check around your home for possible mosquito breeding sites and eliminate them
- Although you cannot infect another person directly, it is possible that a mosquito that bites you can in turn bite another person and transmit the disease that way. So it is important to make sure you do not give mosquitos a chance to bite you.
Dengue can be a deadly disease. It is important to recognize the symptoms of Dengue so that you can present yourself for a blood test. The most important way to to avoid contracting Dengue is to ensure that you don't get bitten by mosquitoes by taking the usual precautions.
More info on Dengue from MOH can be found here
1 comment:
Thanks for sharing... i would like to summerised dengue fever as follow, hopefully this is helpful:
Dengue Fever
- Caused by one of the four Dengue viruses and transmitted from infected person to another.
- Transmits by Aedes mosquito.
- Symptoms of Dengue are sudden high fever, severe headache, eyes pain, muscle and joint pain, nausea, vomiting and no appetite. Symptoms usually appear from 3- 14 days after infection bite. Dengue infection may progress up to Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever where the blood vessel starts to leak and causing bleeding from nose, mouth and gums. Without prompt treatment, the blood vessel can collapse, shock and death.
- Two fifth of the population are at risk and this disease is a leading cause of serious illness and death to children in some Asia countries.
- There are 50 million cases with 12,500 deaths reported every year by World Health Organization (WHO)
- Dengue Fever is common in most tropical and sub tropical countries such as Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America, Asia and Africa.
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