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Disease description

Dengue fever, transmitted by two mosquito species – Aedes Aegypti and Aedes Albopictus, is an acute viral ailment that causes high fever, headache, severe joint and bone and muscle pain, retro-orbital (behind eyes) pain, and rash.

Another variation of Dengue fever was prevalent throughout tropics and subtropics regions since 1953; and there were outbreaks in Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Vietnam. It mainly attacks children aged from 3 to 10; if the condition is severe, it could incur fatal bleeding symptoms and shock; and this has since been a serious public hygiene problem.

In addition to typical dengue fever, dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and dengue shock syndrome (DDS) are also named secondary dengue. For typical dengue fever, both are caused by any of the four dengue virus below: DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, and DEN4; classified according to their serotype. Besides commonly known mosquito transmission, there are reports suggesting transmissions between monkeys and infected mosquitoes in West Malaysia and West Africa; such transmission is often called forest transmission cycle.

Dengue fever is transmitted through infective mosquito bites. Viremia is a medical condition that virus enter the bloodstream and hence have the access to the rest of the body (usually one day before fever and five days after the fever). If the mosquito bites the patient with viremia, it will become infectious after 8 to 12 days later and would have life-long infecting abilities.

How can dengue fever be prevented?

• Prevention

Wear long pants and long sleeves; use mosquito repellant sprays when visiting place where dengue is endemic

• Control the environment, patients and contacted persons.

1. Contact local public health bureau
2. Before fever subsides, prevent any mosquito bites
3. Use mosquito repellant sprays when visiting places where dengue is endemic.
4. Quarantine of contacted family: no
5. Vaccination: no available vaccine
6. Investigate contacts and source of infection: investigate the places visited by the infected patients, both 2 weeks before they were infected and one week after they were infected, to see if there were any other suspected cases.

Treatment and nursing care

For typical dengue, patients are treated primarily according to their symptoms and relief of their symptoms; patients should be well-rested and they should be fully recovered in 7 to 14 days.