Dengue Fever Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis and Complications

Dengue fever becomes one of the most dangerous diseases all over the world. It usually occurs in subtropical and tropical zones globally. In mild stage Dengue Symptoms are like joint pain, rash, muscle pain & high fever. A severe dengue fever is known as dengue hemorrhagic fever. In fact, the patients will suffer terrible bleeding, blood pressure dropping, and even death. There are many cases of dengue fever around the world. The western Pacific islands and Southeast Asia become the most exposed zones associated with this disease. Recently, there’s a rapid increase of dengue fever in South America. Researchers have been working hard on the vaccines to cure this deadly disease. The best prevention is to exterminate the habitat of mosquito around us.

Causes of Dengue Fever

The major cause of dengue fever is the dengue virus carried by mosquitoes living near human dwellings. When a mosquito sucks blood from those with a dengue virus, the virus will transmit to the mosquito. This infected mosquito may bite other people. As a result, the dengue virus transmits to their bloodstream. Actually, we will have the immunity against the virus that infected us after the recovery. However, it’s only to the one of the viruses. There are 3 other dengue fever viruses out there. The risk of getting hemorrhagic fever may increase if we get the infection for the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th time.

Dengue Symptoms

There are some symptoms of dengue fever including high fever up to a week, severe headache, muscle pain, losing appetite, diarrhea, vomiting, bleeding, and rashes. In the recovery process, there will be prolonged depression as well as fatigue. Those who suffer repeated infection may get a shock and excessive bleeding. Immediate and appropriate treatments will be compulsory to avoid a fatal outcome. The signs and symptoms usually begin about 4 – 14 days after a bite of mosquito with any kind of dengue virus to someone who hasn’t exposed to these viruses. Painful muscle and fever may occur immediately in few hours.

The other symptoms occurring will be rashes, headache, red spots, swollen lymph nodes & chills. There’s another common symptom such as the pain behind the eyes. Some of the people may suffer appetite loss, vomiting, and nausea. These will last about 5 days and then vanish. They will reappear again with rashes. The rash will occur on the below part of the feet and the palms. It depends on the area affected by the infection. This will last about 2 weeks with thorough recovery. In some cases, it will last for more weeks. Dengue Symptoms may vary in individuals. Some will develop more troublesome complications like hemorrhagic in some areas including the gastrointestinal tract, skin, and gums.

Severe dengue fever is recognized as DHF or dengue hemorrhagic fever. Most of this case occurs in kids under 14 years old. However, it also occurs in adults. There’s also a different type of dengue fever namely DSS or dengue shock syndrome. Commonly, DHF may go before DSS. The patients will develop some pain in their abdominal, drop in blood pressure, and heavy bleeding. DSS will cause fatalities if not treated appropriately and quickly. It means that we should get the help from the experts before the fever gets worse.

Dengue Fever Diagnosis & Complications

Dengue fever complications usually occur in severe cases such as shock syndrome and hemorrhagic. There are some complications which may occur infrequently such as bleeding, dehydration, hypotension, liver damage, low platelets, slow heart rate, and even death. Medical experts diagnose Dengue Symptoms as the same as the other fevers or a common flu. If there are no occurrences of common symptoms, the caregivers may conduct some tests to obtain a clear diagnosis. Other diseases such as yellow fever, typhoid, leptospirosis, poisoning, and others may have related symptoms. If the caregivers don’t have sufficient information to get a diagnosis or the patients have severe symptoms, further tests will be necessary.

The aim of further tests is to differentiate between dengue fever from the others. Commonly, there are more severe symptoms such as high fever above 105 F, bruising easily, shock syndrome, and hemorrhages. In this case, the patients must undergo more tests. Usually, most caregivers may require a CBC or complete blood test. They also conduct coagulation studies in patients with bleeding issues and high fever. Urine and blood cultures are compulsory depend on the type of symptoms. It’s to distinguish dengue fever to other similar diseases. Mostly, the caregivers may use a Mac-Elisa essay as a further diagnosis of dengue fever.

All of those tests are important and definitive to find out the dengue virus exposure in the patients. As a supportive care, we can use home remedies to deal with dengue fever. Pain management with Tylenol and good hydration will be common treatments at home. Yet, these will be useless for those with dengue shock syndrome or dengue hemorrhagic fever. Severe dengue fever belongs to medical emergencies so it requires immediate treatment from physicians.

Naturally, we can prevent dengue fever by eliminating mosquitoes. They are the main causes of dengue viruses’ exposition to humans. When traveling in tropical zones, we need to wear appropriate clothes. Travelers are able to minimize the exposed skin by wearing appropriate garments. It will reduce the risk of mosquitoes bites. We can also use repellents to keep mosquitoes away. For the protection of the kids, we can use bed nets. It will reduce the bites caused by mosquitoes. Bed nets are quite effective to protect the kids from mosquitoes and other insects.