Saturday, August 28, 2010

Awareness Blog:Dengue Fever

My friend's son was admitted at the hospital last tuesdsy night due to a 3 days fever with vomiting and stomach pain. Laboratory test showed, he was positive for dengue with a very low platelet count. 

There's a possible outbreak of dengue in some parts of the Philippines because more and more reports of dengue cases have been reported in the local papers just recently.

I have read that the mosquito that carries this disease does not breed in dirty contaminated waters. To understand fully about what really is dengue and how one catch this disease, I made a research and found this on a website(biotech.ph)

According to this website:
Dengue fever is a severe,potentially fatal,hemorrhagic disease caused by dengue viruses,which are carried and transmitted by the female, day-bitting Aedes aegytpti mosquito, the same mosquito responsible for the Yellow Fever.

One catches the dengue fever through the bite of the female Aedes aegypti mosquito. It is not transmitted from one person to person.The carrier mosquito inhabit and rapidly breeds in stagnant pools of water or tanks of drinking or bath water in the backyard of homes. 

Symptoms includes: any abrupt onset of fever 2 to 7 days duration,skin rah, body malaise, pain behind the eye,headache,joint and bone pains,anorexia, vomiting,nose and or gum bleeding,easy bruising and cough.

Prevention: The best measure is to eliminate all possible breeding places around us  like pools of stagnant water in tanks for drinking or bathing, pools of water in the ground,in discarded auto tires, bottles,xcoconut husks, plastic container.Tanks of drinking or bath water must be covered to get rid of mosquitoes. DEET( N,N diethymetatoluamide) mosquito repellent are also helpful. US health authorities are recommending two more safe repellents: picaridin and oil of lemon eucalyptus.
Due to potential health hazards, fumigation(fogging) are not recommended and they do not kill the infective larvae.

Being aware will help prevent and eliminate dengue. So share this info.
Happy weekend!



No comments:

Post a Comment