Dengue Fever: Causes and Effects

Two years ago, my friend died due to dengue fever. At that time no one was familiar with that disease. In starting, his temperature; got out of control. He had intense pain in his body. He had a high headache. After a day, he started vomiting with blood. Everyone was very much worried about him. His parents took him to the hospitals. Doctor suggested him to have some blood tests. After blood tests, doctor told his parents that he was suffering from dengue fever. He was admitted into the hospital for better treatment. His condition got worse day by day and soon he died of dengue. I took his death to my heart because I was very much attached to him. Therefore, I decided to do a research on dengue fever. And able to spread the awareness about dengue to my loved ones, so that, I do not lose any more of my loved one’s to dengue as they might take appropriate precautions to save themselves from dengue fever.

When I researched for the history of dengue fever I came to know that Dengue was known from the days of WW2. It has been the cause of many deaths since then. It has been observed that in 1060’sthe number of victims of dengue fever increased rapidly and became a major terror in people’s mind. People didn’t know how to avoid dengue fever due to lack of awareness and knowledge about dengue fever. Many countries had faced severity in dengue fever. Srilanka has been facing dengue fever for many years. Many people die in Srilanka due to dengue fever every year. “Accordingly, up to September, there have been 18,263 cases reported across the country along with 129 deaths. The capital Colombo accounts for 7,170 of the patients.” [1] Singapore had also affected by dengue fever. Dengue fever caused many severe deaths in Singapore.” In the 2005 dengue outbreak in Singapore, a significant rise in the number of dengue fever cases was reported in Singapore, becoming the country’s worst health crisis since the 2003 SARS epidemic. In October 2005, there were signs that the dengue fever outbreak had peaked, as the number of weekly cases had declined and the outbreak of this infectious disease was under control by the end of 2005. In 2005, there were a total of 13,984 dengue fever cases and 19 people died. The outbreak peaked in the months of September and October, when it caused hospitals to cancel some elective surgery due to the need to allocate more beds for dengue patients.” [2] 

Dengue fever came into Pakistan due to tire trading with Srilanka and Singapore. Dengue fever also results in the deaths in Pakistan.”The number of patients affected with the dengue virus has now mounted to over 5,000 across Pakistan. Moreover, the death toll as a result of the disease also rose to 31.According to Pakistan’s National Health Department (NHD); the number of confirmed dengue patients in the country has risen to 5,050.Out of the 5,050, 2,350 patients are in Sindh, 1,885 in Punjab and at least 158 dengue patients are present in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a private news channel reported. There are at least 380 patients in Rawalpindi and 230 in Islamabad. – APP”. [3] 

Dengue is an infectious, mosquito-borne, fever. In severe cases like dengue hemorrhagic fever “(DHF)” 1 it could prove fatal. It is caused by” Aedes aegypti mosquito bite” [4] . It causes temperature, lack of consciousness and decided reduction in white blood cells. This results in, bleeding from the nose, mouth, and internal tissues. Person feels so much pain and headache. Dengue fever is a very harmful caused by dengue virus. Dengue is carried out by female mosquito. The production and nurture of dengue mosquito is in clean water. They eat algae floating on the surface of water. The dengue mosquitoes are mostly found at the places where pure water is found. Accumulated water in tyres will also give birth to the dengue mosquitoes. Dengue mosquitoes are mostly found in the planted areas. Dengue mosquito bites the humans mostly at dusk and dawn. They bite human beings and suck the blood from their body and transfer their saliva into the humans. And not only it bites; it also urinates on the skin which is one of the causes of dengue fever. When the saliva of affected mosquito entered in one’s body, it attacked on the white blood cells and result is in the decrease of white blood cells. The amount of platelets in the blood also decreases. A person who is affected from dengue fever starts vomiting with blood after the decrease in white blood cells and platelets.

Dengue fever also known as break bone fever. In dengue fever, people have to face a lot of pain in every part of body. And fight against that pain; and the looser has to lose his life. They feel very pain in their bones due this dengue fever known as break bone fever. Dengue patients face high temperature, intense pain in bones, intense headache, bleeding, vomiting, Loss of appetite, Change in taste sensation, mental irritability and irritation in eyes. The skin of dengue patient becomes reddish. The blood of dengue patient becomes thin. They feel very tiredness and inability to do any work.

“Symptoms maybe milder in Children are than in adults. The acute phase of illness can last for 1 week followed by a 1 to 2 week period of recovery period that is characterized by weakness, malaise and loss of appetite. Leakage of plasma from vascular compartment leading to increased blood concentration and manifestations of shock. These symptoms when not treated may lead to Dengue Shock Syndrome, which when not treated immediately may lead to profound shock and eventually death.” [5] 

In all cases dengue is not fatal. If it is not cured earlier when diagnosed then it would get prolonged and might prove fatal for the patient. At first when mosquito bites, only dengue is diagnosed. But after 14 days, without proper treatments it changes to DHF; the fatal one. In which the number of white blood cells starts decreasing swiftly. White blood cells present in the blood causes it to coagulate. But when it starts decreasing; the clotting power of blood decreases in the same manner. Blood gets thin gradually. And blood vessels are not able to hold the blood in them. This results in the bleeding; from nose, mouth, ears, vessels and other body tissues. Body is not able to hold the blood. And patient loses its blood gradually. On the average, a human body has 6-7 liters of blood and plasma. But in patient it decreases to abnormal level, so that its heart is no longer to deliver the oxygen to other body parts. And as a whole the dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) proves fatal. In the early stage it could be easily cured by medicine. There are also anti-biotic which can fight against the dengue fever. Day after the day it produces more complexity to the treatment. If the person is not recovering by itself or by the use of medicine, then the dengue fever would change into (DHF) and then the patient is applied blood by outside to maintain the blood level in the body with correct amount of white blood cells. This process also adds immunity to the patient to fight against the fatal disease.

If the person is victim of dengue fever he should go to doctor immediately as the dengue fever is very much harmful. It can cause any kind of damage. He must follow doctor advice. There is no such specific medicine for the treatment of dengue fever. Most of the people think that dengue fever is a normal fever and they did not go to doctor and do their treatments own their own. They just take the antibiotics such as dispirin, brufin and many others which are not the solution to overcome dengue fever. Instead of curing the disease these tablets cause some side effects such as thinning of blood cause blood vomiting. He should directly immediately go to doctor to get rid of dengue fever which is very much harmful. If he is at home he should take medicine like panadol so that the fever could be reduced. Dengue fever can also be treated by Homeopathy but it takes time to show its effects, but it completely treats the dengue fever. Oral rehydration therapy is required for the patients who had dehydrated because of vomiting and high fever. The food given to the dengue patients should be according to appetite. The patient of dengue fever should take fresh juices such as apple, orange, pomegranate etc. some people said that the patients of dengue fever should use the juice of papayas leaves with two or three drops of lemon in it. Patients of dengue fever took two to three weeks to recover from dengue fever In case high fever, the patient should be showered with cold water and wet cotton bandage should be places on forehead and feet. The patients of dengue fever should keep themselves covered so that other mosquito’s don’t bite them if the mosquito’s will bite them then those mosquito’s will also become as harmful as dengue. By that the number dengue mosquitoes will increase very rapidly and it will become very difficult to overcome dengue.

In addition all the people who do not suffer from the dengue should avoid this harmful disease and for that they will have to abide some precautions. To avoid from dengue mosquitoes the people should take some precautions such as they should keep houses windows and doors closed and do not led the mosquitoes come in bite them and cause a very serious fatal disease like dengue fever. The people must no wear the half sleeves shirts and should not go outside in the early morning and late evening. If someone goes out he should cover his body with full sleeve shirts and long pants. He must wear the socks to avoid dengue fever. People should use bed net. Stay in air conditioned rooms to avoid dengue fever. People should drink enough fluids to avoid dengue fever. They should use the mospel and ignited mortine in their houses and should use mosquito repellent lotion on their bodies and get their houses with mosquitoes’ repellent spray. People should cultivate mosquito’s repellent plants like tulsi, basil and niazbow. People should clean their roof after rain fall. People should covered water containing tanks with tight lid. Water fountain should be kept dry in the session of dengue. Water in carwash areas can also cause dengue so water should be drained immediately after washing vehicles. To lower the mosquito’s population people should reduce breeding habitat.

If we want to overcome dengue fever govt. should play an important role for the remedy of dengue fever. Dengue fever came into Pakistan due to tyre trading with Srilanka and Singapore. So Govt. should either stop trading with these countries or they should check dengue larva in the tyre before trading. Govt. should spray on the lakes, ponds, stagnant water and the habitat of dengue. Govt. should spray in schools, colleges, hospitals, gardens, public places to overcome dengue fever. Govt. can prevent the spread of dengue fever by different awareness programs through different sources such as social media, electronic media, print media, societies, seminars and door to door awareness programs in every place of country; focusing illiterate peoples of country and setting up departments for this purpose and awareness centers in every town of country. NGO’s should also play an important role to overcome dengue fever by doing different awareness programs and seminars In Pakistan Punjab government has played an effective role in controlling the spread of dengue. Punjab govt. held many seminars throughout the province to spread awareness. They have distributed many sprays among peoples to stop dengue. They stop trading of tyres. The most important step to overcome dengue is to find its roots through research and that is exactly what Punjab Govt. has made it as its first priority. Punjab govt. has published book on dengue for the awareness in people. A great inflation has come this year as compared to last two years in which thousands of people affected by dengue fever which is a great progress of PUNJAB GOVT. On the other hand, NGO’s in Pakistan also play a great role to overcome dengue fever. They conduct dengue awareness seminars in those areas where most of the people are illiterate and unaware about dengue fever, which is also the reason of aforementioned inflation.

In conclusion, As it can be seen that dengue fever is a very much dangerous, rapidly spreading virus and contaminating which can be seen by its rapidly increasing victims and its spreading in different countries of world including Singapore, Srilanka, Pakistan and more in a very short interval of time and having the significant numbers of deaths. While as it is seen that it can be controlled, if we take precautions for it which are now known by research. It is the one of the unique fever in itself that is why it’s also known as “BREAK BONE” fever. So, we should advise peoples related to us and everyone we can to save them from dengue fever by taking proper precautions.