How to Know if I Have Dengue Fever
Dengue Fever is a debilitating, painful, mosquito born disease. It is commonly found in tropical areas of the globe, such as India, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, The Caribbean, The Pacific Islands, Africa and Mexico. Dengue is transmitted by the bite of the Aedes aegypti mosquito infected with dengue virus. The mosquito catches this infection when it bites a person infected with dengue, and then transmits it to the next person it bites. Your symptoms may be mistaken for a common cold, which can lead to an alarming decline in platelets and a more complicated prognosis. Before you discover the prevention and cure of dengue, you first of all need to know if you have dengue fever. You will find the answer at oneHOWTO.
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Symptoms of dengue
Dengue is transmitted by aedes aegypti mosquito bites that are the carriers of the disease. There are four types of virus. Once you contract the disease, you become immune to that particular type. And, if you live in areas with frequent outbreaks, you'll always be exposed to infection and run the risk of contracting the classic haemorrhagic dengue fever. Let's look at the symptoms to know if you have dengue fever.
Symptoms of the fever usually start around 4-7 days of catching the infection, and last for upto 15 days. The symptoms may include:
- Sudden high fever
- Severe headache
- Pain behind the eyes
- Nausea and vomiting
- Severe muscle and joint pain
- Mild bleeding from gums, nose or others
- Easy bruising
- Skin rash, which may appear around 3-4 days after onset of the fever
Sometimes, symptoms are so mild that people mistake them for those of flu or any other viral infection. So it can be difficult to know if you have dengue fever. In addition, younger kids are seen to have milder cases of dengue than adults and older children. However, if left unattended, it may lead to serious problems, including hemorrhagic fever, blood vessels and lymph damage, liver enlargement, failure of circulatory system etc. The symptoms may progress into dengue shock syndrome, a dangerous drop in blood pressure, excessive bleeding and even death.
People with repeated dengue infection or weakened immune system are at increased risk of developing dengue shock syndrome.
Diagnosis of dengue
Dengue infection is diagnosed with ablood test, in which the virus or its antibodies are looked for in the patient’s blood. You should immediately consult a doctor if you develop high fever after while traveling or after returning from a tropical area.
If you have been diagnosed with dengue infection, you should get lots of rest, drink plenty of liquids, and take acetaminophen based pain relievers, like paracetamol.
If, after more than two or three days you have similar symptoms with no improvement, see your doctor immediately for a complete series of tests. Hospitalisation is common in cases when the patients' platelets drop too low, in order to avoid haemorrhagic dengue fever.
How to cure a dengue fever
Unfortunately, no vaccine has been developed so far to prevent dengue infection. It requires plenty of rest, proper nutrition and administration to control the fever of paracetamol. Fatigue and loss of appetite caused by low platelets put the patients' life at risk. If low platelets, which are responsible for blood clotting, aren't diagnosed early, they can reach very low levels of 10,000 or less per cubic millimetre, resulting in haemorrhagic dengue fever, putting the patient in grave danger.
If you are traveling to India, we recommend you read our article: What are the most common diseases in India and What are the most dangerous animals in India to stay safe.
If you still are unsure how to know if you have dengue fever, read our article how to know if you have dengue fever.
This article is merely informative, oneHOWTO does not have the authority to prescribe any medical treatments or create a diagnosis. We invite you to visit your doctor if you have any type of condition or pain.
If you want to read similar articles to How to Know if I Have Dengue Fever, we recommend you visit our Diseases & secondary effects category.
