As almost 500 cases crop up in Dakshin Kannada or Mangaluru, Dengue is back this season and with a big bang for sure in Karnataka. Already four people have succumbed to the deadly fever that is a result of the Aedes mosquitos. Unike malaria mosquitos, Dengue mosquitos breed inside the house in clean water. A viral infection, Dengue is at its peak in the monsoon season every year. The most common symptoms of dengue include headache, swollen lymph nodes, rashes, exhaustion and high fever. The main characteristics of dengue include high fever, rashes and headache.
The acute phase of the fever can last upto two weeks. The more serious and life threatening condition of Dengue is Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) occurring mostly in under 10 years children. This complication can cause circulatory collapse, hemorrhage and abdominal pain. The symptoms often occur after 3 days to 15 days of the mosquito bite. The weather conditions also are responsible to an extent for breeding the dengue mosquitos. Outbreaks are more common in tropical and subtropical areas. Though the condition is not contagious, if a mosquito bites a dengue infected, it does contract the dengue virus too and spread it onward to other people.
Thus the Aedes mosquito is considered the vector or transmitter and humans as the source of infection. As mentioned Dengue Hemorrhagic fever or DHF is a shock syndrome of dengue that mostly affects children under 10 years of age. DHF starts abruptly with consistent fever accompanied with headache. Other symptoms include cough, nausea, sore throat, and vomiting as well as abdominal pain. The shock occurs around 2 to 6 days after the onset of symptoms with sudden collapse, mouth blueness, weak pulse to name a few. Bleeding is also a common possibility and DHF requires close monitoring. There is no particular treatment and only intensive care with blood transfusion and oxygen provision as well as immediate fluid replacement are some of the treatments. If proper treatment is provided the mortality rate could be less but it could rise to as high as 20% if not treated properly.
The best idea is to take care around your house and avoid travelling to mosquito prone areas. Check for water storage possibilities for breeding mosquitos and treat appropriately.
*Sourced from the Internet
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