Dengue Fever

Dengue Fever

♦ What is it ?

Dengue fever is a common communicable disease characterized by

occurrence of high fever, severe body aches and intense headache. It is a

very common disease that occurs in epidemic form from time to time.

Delhi and parts of North India experienced a large number of

cases of Dengue in 1996, 2003 and 2006. The disease is quite severe in

young children as compared to adults.

It is a disease which occurs throughout the world except in Europe and

affects a large number of people. For example, it is estimated that every

year, 2 crore cases of Dengue fever occur in the world. Death rate varies

from 5 per 100 cases to 30 per 100 cases.

♦ Cause ?

It is caused by a virus (Dengue Virus) which has got four different

types (Type 1,2,3,4). Common name of the disease is ‘break-bone fever’

"(Haddi Tod Bukhar)" because of severe body and joint pains produced.

♦ Spread

Just like in Malaria, Dengue fever is also spread by bites of mosquitoes.

In this case, the mosquitoes are “Aedes” mosquitoes which are very tough

and bold mosquitoes and bite even during day time.

This disease occurs more frequently in the rainy season and

immediately afterwards (July to October) in India.

The Dengue virus is present in the blood of the patient suffering from

Dengue fever. Whenever an Aedes mosquito bites a patient of Dengue

fever, it sucks blood and along with it, the Dengue virus into its body. The

virus undergoes further development in the body of the mosquito for a few

days. When the virus containing mosquito bites a normal human being, the

virus is injected into the person’s body and he/she becomes infected and

can develop symptoms of Dengue fever.

♦ Incubation Period : It means the time between bite of an infected

mosquito and appearance of symptoms of dengue fever in the bitten

person. Commonly, it is 5-6 days. However it can vary from 3-10 days.

♦ Symptoms of the disease

Symptoms depend upon the type of Dengue fever. There are three types

of Dengue fever-

1. Classical (Simple) Dengue Fever

2. Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever (DHF)

3. Dengue Shock Syndrome (DSS)

The classical (Simple) Dengue fever is a self-limiting disease and

does not kill. However, the other types (i.e. DHF & DSS) can prove fatal

if prompt treatment is not started.

It is important to recognise whether Dengue Fever is Simple or DHF

or DSS. The following symptoms will help in diagnosis –

1. Classical (Simple) Dengue Fever :

• Sudden onset of high fever with feeling of chills (“Thandi Lagna”).

• Severe Headache, Pains in muscles and joints.

• Pain behind the eyeballs especially on pressing the eyes or on

moving the eyeballs.

• Extreme weakness, loss of appetite, feeling of nausea.

• Change in taste sensations in

mouth.

• Pain in abdomen by itself or

on touching.

• Mild pain in throat.

• Patient feels generally

depressed and very sick.

• Rash on the skin : Pinkish red rash appears on the skin in the form of diffuse flushing, mottling or pinhead eruptions on the face, neck

and chest. Later on, the rash may become more prominent.

The entire duration of Classical Dengue fever lasts for about 5-7 days

and the patient recovers.

2. Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever – (DHF) –

It should be suspected if with above mentioned symptoms of

Classical (Simple) Dengue Fever, one or more of the following

symptoms appear –

• Bleeding (haemorrhagic) manifestations : Bleeding from

nose, gums, blood in the stools or in vomiting, bleeding spots on

the skin which are seen as dark bluish-black, small or large patches.

If a health worker carries out a Tourniquet Test, it is positive.

Certain laboratory investigations carried out on a blood sample

also confirm DHF.

3. Dengue Shock Syndrome (DSS)

All symptoms as mentioned above in DHF are present plus

the patient also develops a condition called ‘shock’. Symptoms of shock in

a Dengue Fever case are –

• The person is very restless and the skin feels cold and clammy

despite high fever.

• The person may start losing consciousness.

• If you examine the pulse rate of the patient, it is weak and rapid.

Similarly, blood pressure will be low.

♦ Treatment

If it is classical (simple) Dengue Fever, the patient can be managed at

home. As it is a self-limiting disease, the treatment is purely supportive

and symptomatic –

e.g. –

• Keep the fever low by giving paracetamol tablet or syrup as per

health worker’s advise.

• Avoid giving Aspirin or Dispirin tablets to the patient

• If fever is more than 102°F, carry out hydrotherapy to bring down

the temperature.

• Give plenty of fluids water, shikanji etc. to the patient.

• Continue normal feeding. In fever, the body, infact, requires more

food.

• Allow the patient to rest.

If any of the symptoms indicative of DHF or DSS develop, rush the

patient to the nearest hospital at the earliest where appropriate investigations

will be carried out and necessary treatment instituted, e.g., transfusion of

fluids or platelets (a kind of blood cells which become low in DHF and

DSS).

Please remember that every patient does not require blood

platelet transfusion.

Please remember :

Even DHF and DSS can be managed successfully if a correct

diagnosis is made and the treatment is started early.

4 . Prevention

Prevention of Dengue Fever is easy, cheap and better. What is required

are some simple measures for –

• Preventing breeding of Aedes mosquitoes

• Protection from Aedes mosquitoes’ bites.

For protection against mosquitoes –

1. Mosquitoes breed only in water sources such as stagnant water in

drains and ditches, room air coolers, broken bottles, old discarded tyres,

containers and similar sources.

• Don’t allow water to remain stagnant in and around your house.

Fill the ditches. Clean the blocked drains. Empty the room air coolers and flower vases completely atleast once in seven days

and let them dry. Dispose off old containers, tins and tyres etc.

properly.

• Keep the water tanks and water containers tightly covered so

that the mosquitoes can not enter them and start breeding.

• Wherever it is not possible to completely drain the water off from

room cooler, water tanks etc., it

is advised to put about two

tablespoons (30 ml.) of petrol or

kerosene oil into them for each

100 litres of water. This will

prevent mosquito breeding.

Repeat it every week.

• You can also put some types of

small fish (Gambusia, Lebister)

which eat mosquito larvae into

these water collections. These fish can be obtained from the local

administrative bodies (e.g., Malaria Officer’s office in the area).

• Wherever possible, practicable and affordable, prevent entry of

mosquitoes into the house by keeping wire mesh on windows and

doors.

• Use mosquito repellent sprays, creams, coils, mats or liquids to

drive away/ kill the mosquitoes. Use of googal smoke is a good

indigenous method for getting rid of mosquitoes.

• Wear clothes which cover the body as much as possible. This is

more relevant in case of children. Nickers and T-shirts are better

avoided during the season of Malaria and Dengue fever, i.e., from

July to October.

• Don’t turn away spray workers whenever they come to spray your

house.

It is in your own interest to get the house sprayed.

• Use insecticidal sprays in all

areas within the house atleast

once a week. Don’t forget to spray

behind the photo-frames, curtains,

calendars; corners of house,

stores.

• Keep the surroundings of your

house clean. Don’t litter garbage.

Don’t allow wild herbs etc. to

grow around your house (atleast

in a radius of about 100 metres

around your house). They act as

hiding and resting places for

mosquitoes.

• Do inform and take help from your

local health centre, panchayat or municipality in case you notice

abnormal density of mosquitoes or too many cases of fever are

occurring in your area.

It is good to remember that Aedes mosquitoes bite even during

daytime and hence you should take precautions against their

bite during day time also.

• If fencing of the doors and windows is not possible due to any

reason, spray the entire house daily with pyrethrum solution.

• Dengue fever occurs most frequently in India in the months of

July to October because this season provides very suitable conditions

for breeding of mosquitoes. Hence all these preventive steps must

be taken during the season.

• Lastly, it is advisable to always keep the patient of Dengue fever

under a mosquito net in the first 5-6 days of the illness so that

mosquitoes don’t have an access to him/her. This will help in

reduction in spread of Dengue fever to other persons in the

Community.

If you ever notice that many persons have

suffered from an illness which may appear to

be Dengue Fever, please inform this to the local

health authorities or reply to this post at the earliest. This will help

in preventing the disease acquiring epidemic

proportions.

Hope you found the information helpful.

I will soon return with a similar post on Chikungunya Fever.

Thank you

hp