{"id":3184,"date":"2013-04-22T10:30:02","date_gmt":"2013-04-22T14:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/?p=3184"},"modified":"2013-04-22T09:18:35","modified_gmt":"2013-04-22T13:18:35","slug":"dengue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/first2board.com\/verygoodpoints\/2013\/04\/22\/dengue\/","title":{"rendered":"I Have Dengue, Now What?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have what?\u00a0 Dengue? How did that happen?\u00a0 Well, the answer is that dengue is the most rapidly spreading mosquito-borne viral disease in the world.\u00a0An\u00a0estimated 50 million dengue infections occur annually according to the World Health Organization (WHO).\u00a0 So it\u2019s\u00a0shouldn’t\u00a0be such a surprise for someone who spends significant amounts of time in South East Asia.<\/p>\n

In early March, while I was in Bangkok for many weeks, I became very sick.\u00a0 I assumed it was a bad flu, that\u2019s what it felt like.\u00a0 I had some pretty typical symptoms and some more unusual ones. For example, I had splitting headaches \u2013 something I don\u2019t usually suffer from.\u00a0 After a few days, I still\u00a0wasn’t\u00a0feeling any better, so I saw a physician.\u00a0 He treated me as if I had the flu.<\/p>\n

About a week or so later, still not feeling like I was back to normal, and suffering with some lingering flu like symptoms \u2013 most notably a very annoying cough \u2013 I sought further medical attention.\u00a0 After ruling out pneumonia and bronchitis they did some further testing which revealed the Dengue virus.<\/p>\n

Dengue, also called Dengue Fever, is caused by any of four dengue viruses, and is transmitted by mosquitoes. Dengue is a major public health problem in the tropics and subtropics, which includes Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, where thousands of U.S. citizens develop dengue every year.<\/p>\n

There are two classifications of Dengue, Dengue and Severe Dengue. Historically Severe Dengue was called Dengue\u00a0Hemorrhagic\u00a0Fever. The WHO no longer calls it that and the term Severe Dengue has been adopted instead. It is important to note that you cannot pass Dengue from Human to Human. It is only passed from mosquito to human.<\/p>\n

Dengue is leading cause of fever in\u00a0travelers\u00a0returning from Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America. Transmission has occasionally occurred in the continental United States in areas where Aedes mosquitoes are found.<\/p>\n

So what is Dengue?<\/h2>\n

(All information compiled from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and WHO) <\/i><\/p>\n

Dengue virus is a small single-stranded RNA virus comprising four distinct serotypes or strains known as Dengue 1 – 4. \u00a0The various strain of the dengue virus are transmitted to humans through the bites\u00a0of infected Aedes mosquitoes.\u00a0This mosquito is a tropical\u00a0and subtropical species widely distributed around the world, mostly between latitudes\u00a035\u00a0N and 35\u00a0S.<\/p>\n

Humans are the main host of the virus. Dengue virus circulating in the blood of an infected human (someone is infectious for 24-48 hours after being bitten) is ingested by female mosquitoes during feeding. The virus then infects the mosquito over an incubation period of 8–12 days.\u00a0 After the 8-12 day incubation period, the virus can be transmitted to other humans during subsequent feeding. \u00a0Thereafter the mosquito remains infective for the rest of its life.<\/p>\n

If you get it:<\/h2>\n

Infection by any of the four virus strain\u00a0can produce a wide spectrum of illness within a patient. \u00a0However, patients surviving the\u00a0infection are thought to have a lifelong protective\u00a0immunity to the infecting strain. \u00a0Individuals suffering an infection are protected\u00a0from becoming ill with a different strain within 2–3 months of the primary infection\u00a0but there is no known long-term protective immunity, which means you can become infected from a different strain in the future.<\/p>\n

Individual risk factors and the specific strain determine the severity of disease. Risk factors include: secondary infection, age, ethnicity and possibly chronic diseases like bronchial asthma, sickle cell\u00a0anemia\u00a0and\u00a0diabetes. Young children in particular may be less able than adults to compensate\u00a0and are consequently at greater risk.\u00a0Dengue 2 is known to be one of the more serious strains and is responsible for many deaths in the tropics.<\/p>\n

Prevention and Treatment<\/h2>\n

There are no vaccines to prevent dengue and no medicines specifically approved to treat the disease, however, timely medical care can greatly reduce the possibility of death.\u00a0 Doctors focus on treating any secondary infections and chronic conditions to ensure that the patient\u2019s immune system can fight the Dengue virus.<\/p>\n

Before you travel, determine the risk level for the area you’re traveling to. You can visit the WHO or\u00a0CDC website<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0The CDC recommends taking precautions like using repellent and killing visible mosquitoes. The CDC recommends repellents containing DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus or IR3535 as the active ingredient. Repellent can be applied to exposed skin and\/or clothing. Some spatial repellent\/insecticide products (mosquito coils, plug-in or butane powered devices), may assist in reducing the risk of mosquito around you.<\/p>\n

Mosquitoes are active at all times, but especially around dusk. \u00a0I was bitten two times while I was in Thailand in early March; one time in a car in the early morning and one time in an un-air-conditioned bathroom mid-day.\u00a0 They occurred within 24 hours of each other so I have no idea which one was the one that infected me.<\/p>\n

Symptoms of dengue include high fever, severe headache, severe pain behind the eyes, joint pain, muscle and bone pain, rash and mild bleeding involving the nose or gums, flu-like symptoms, cough, and easy bruising. Severe infections can result in hemorrhage, shock, and death.<\/p>\n

How to Care for the Patient While They Have a Fever:<\/p>\n