Dengue fever is caused by a virus of the Flaviviridae family carried by female yellow fever mosquitoes. At the same time, the risk of contracting dengue fever directly from another person without the involvement of carriers is minimal. Ekaterina Demyanovskaya, a specialist in the Hemotest Laboratory, told socialbites.ca.
“Infection from a person is possible only through a blood transfusion or organ donation from a patient in the acute phase of fever, which is extremely unlikely in practice,” said the expert.
According to the doctor, the process of transmission of the virus occurs as follows: a mosquito bites an infected person or animal. Along with the blood, the virus enters the mosquito’s body. After that, the insect bites another person and infects him.
“The incubation period for dengue fever is usually three days to two weeks. Then there are the symptoms of the disease: headache, fever up to 39-40°C, skin rash. In addition, a person has pain in the eyeballs, nausea and vomiting, aching in the joints and muscles. “If dengue fever progresses in a severe hemorrhagic form, nosebleeds, bloody diarrhea, internal bleeding are added to the symptoms,” he said.
There is no specific treatment for dengue fever. For patients with this diagnosis, doctors recommend bed rest by drinking plenty of water. Prescribe antipyretic and analgesic drugs, drugs that control blood pressure, eliminate toxic metabolic products, improve liver function, antihistamines.
“Recovery usually occurs one to two weeks after the onset of the disease. In this case, if there are signs of a severe form, you should immediately call an ambulance. In about 0.021% of cases, a fatal outcome is possible,” he emphasized.
Antibodies produced in the body after an illness only protect against complications when infected with a virus of the same serotype, and there are four for the dengue virus. The doctor concluded that the course of the disease was more severe each time, when reinfected with a different serotype of the virus.
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