The Indian subcontinent has been severely affected by Dengue recently that they are forced to view mosquitoes as potential killers and threat to their lives. So what you should know about this deadly disease that shakes up an entire sub-continent?
How does the Dengue form?
Dengue is spread by female mosquitoes called Aedes aegypti. Eggs from these mosquitoes remain unaffected by external conditions for over a year. These eggs hatch during the monsoon season and mosquitoes from it does the job of spreading Dengue. When these mosquitoes bite a person already affected by Dengue and go on to bite another person without any disease, the later person will become the victim of Dengue as well. This is how the disease starts to spread from person to person through these deadly mosquitoes.
What does Dengue do?
Though our body naturally has immune power to fight various disease and infections, Dengue virus overpowers our immune system and causes dehydration and tiredness. Once the virus slowly starts to spread inside our body, it will start to give out pains in the joints, headache, and causes severe fever. As the disease progress, it affects the platelets in our blood and leads to bleeding. This stage of Dengue is considered to be very serious. In this stage, Dengue can cause bleeding in internal organs which are really hard to control. When this happens it leads to multiple organ failures.
Damage to the Platelets
Platelets present in our blood has a very vital role to play during times of emergency or injury. These platelets rush to the area where there is an injury and form a fiber-like sheet in the place to prevent blood loss. It is the main reason why there is a blood clot at the place of injury. Normally, a person has around 1.5 lakhs to 4 lakhs platelets in his blood. One of the main tasks of Dengue virus is to damage these platelets in the blood. Once the Dengue virus severely infects a person, it will drastically reduce the number of these platelets in the blood of an affected person. Severely affected Dengue patient only has around 10000 platelets in his blood. Due to this reason, the blood in the body will easily start to leak wherever there is a little opening in the blood vessels and will cause internal bleeding in several internal organs. This bleeding can happen in the brain and can cause epilepsy or stroke. In fact, the platelet count will reduce with other virus infections as well, but it won’t be as severe as the one from Dengue virus.
Why do we need blood?
Dengue virus will affect the blood vessels and creates several holes in them, which leads to internal bleeding. This will create several red spots all over the body. As the platelet count starts to reduce, the person will start to bleeding from his teeth, teeth roots, liver, stomach, nose, while urinating etc. They will even start to release blood through poop and vomit. So the affected person will be provided with blood that contains more platelets. A single bottle of blood will only contain one unit of platelets.
How to Protect Yourself?
Avoid water logging near the place where you live, and use appropriate measures to stop the reproduction of mosquitoes. When you can control and destroy the mosquitoes and mosquito eggs using appropriate measures and help from local government bodies, you can effectively protect yourself from the disease.
Avoid traveling to places where there are more instances of Dengue fever like government hospitals and unhygienic households. Protect yourself from mosquito bites early in the morning. Use appropriate mosquito repellents at home and make use of mosquito nets. When a person in your family is affected by Dengue, then there is a danger that it might also spread to others through mosquitoes. So immediately admit the affected person in a hospital and carry on with further treatment as soon as possible. Do not be under an impression that it is just like any other viral fever. Avoid self-medication at all costs.
Children must have extra care
Signs of Dengue usually doesn’t show up immediately after its initial attack. It usually takes about three days to give out initial signs of the disease. So if a person has a severe fever, then it is necessary he/she should be immediately taken to a hospital. Children become weak and act very tired even with a common virus fever. They won’t be in a position to take in severe attack from a Dengue virus. Most children rapidly lose their platelet count in the blood after a Dengue attack. So take extra care towards your children and if they show any signs of fever or tiredness, immediately take them to a hospital and treat them for their condition.
What Treatment?
Increasing and strengthening the immunity of a person is the main part of fighting this disease. Dengue can be brought under control if the condition is treated in its initial stage. With successful treatment, the body pain, tiredness, and fever will be reduced and cured after two weeks. It becomes more dangerous when you leave it untreated for several days after the fever started to show up.
Once the person is confirmed of Dengue infection, he should be immediately admitted to the hospital. Doctors will keep monitoring the levels of platelets in the blood periodically. If needed the affected person might need an extra unit of blood from an external source to make up for the platelet loss. To prevent dehydration the person might be injected with IV fluids periodically. It is very vital the person should be protected from further mosquito bites so that it doesn’t spread to other people around him.
Food and Rest
Dengue affected person will feel body pain and tiredness, so he/she will need more rest. As they will have high levels of dehydration, they need to take foods in the form of fluids like tender coconut, porridge, milk, fresh fruit juices etc. They should drink a lot of water.
What is the test?
Through NS1 antigen test, we can detect if there are any signs of dengue virus antigen in the blood. Through IGM, Hematocrit, and platelet tests we can cross check if the virus is still active or if the person is free from Dengue.
There is a Vaccine for Dengue
Many countries in the world are actively involved in finding out an effective vaccine for Dengue. In the year 2013 scientists from France invented a vaccine called Dengvaxia for Dengue virus. This vaccine officially approved in countries like Brazil, Indonesia, Australia, and 15 other countries in the year 2015. This vaccine was put to test and study in India four years back. The study concluded that this vaccine was not effective in controlling dengue virus and was not approved.
But the reason is not just that, another reason is that, this medicine is very expensive and will cost around Rs.2000 per vaccine. It needs to be administered in three doses. Which makes it even more expensive to be affordable by a common person in India. So Indian government did not approve this vaccination citing its cost. What more pitiable is the fact that Indian government took zero measures to invent an alternative vaccine to Dengue so far. Considering the fact that more and more people die from the disease every single year, it should have taken some immediate measures to control the disease.
Recently a group of scientists who work under Navin Khanna had invented a vaccination for Dengue. But the government of India hardly took any serious steps to put the vaccination for clinical tests. This medicine must be tested on a monkey that is not affected by Dengue. This type of test can only be carried out in America. So it needs funds of millions of rupees. A major software company in India “Infosys” came forward and offered 1 crore rupees to kickstart the testing process. But even then Indian government remains mute on the matter. Due to this reason, this vaccine has not been put to test even today.
When you giving the same kind of drug of a person to fight a virus, the virus will become more virulent and starts to resist the drug. The government of India keeps administering Nilavembu water to its people to fight the virus. This is carried out by not making any serious studies in the way the virus spreads and how the virus reacts to this herb. It is the time the government takes some serious measures to control this serious and life-threatening disease.
Is there any medicine for Dengue in Homoeopathy?
Dengue virus is pretty old to this world. When this virus severely started to spread in Germany in the year 1880, it was controlled using Homoeopathy medicines. The medicines in Homoeopathy for Dengue works in two ways. One it prevents the occurrence of the disease and secondly, it keeps the existing condition under control. We can prevent the loss of platelets in the person who is affected by Dengue virus with 24 to 48 hours through homeopathy medicines.
There are medicines in Homoeopathy that are used to prevent Dengue, but the virus is becoming more and more resistant to the medicine every single year.
The affected person should drink more water to prevent dehydration. Some people believe they can fight the disease through starvation and fasting. But this is not true. When there is dehydration in blood, it leads to loss of platelets and ultimately blood will lose its capacity to clot. This will lead to bleeding in gums, nose, and other openings in the body.
Avoid storing water in the home for longer time duration. Prevent waterlogging and water stagnation. Avoid storing unwashed clothes and do not leave the washed cloth undried. This leads to reproduction of more mosquitoes. Best way to fight Dengue is by reducing the number of mosquitoes.
Symptoms of Dengue Virus
- Severe fever
- Stomach pain
- Unbearable headache
- Body pain combined with tiredness
- Joint pain
- Pain behind the eyes
- Continuous and persistent vomiting
Some Quick Facts about Dengue
- Dengue is a viral disease. It spreads through Aedes Mosquito bite. It spreads from one person to another through this mosquito. This mosquito nurtures and thrives in clean water. It mainly bites during the daytime.
- Officially 128 countries are identified to have Dengue virus.
- Nearly 1,29,166 people from India are affected by Dengue virus in the year 2016.
- According to the official record, 245 people died of Dengue virus in 2016 in India.
- Around 390 million people get affected by Dengue in a year all over the world.
- 2.5 percent people who get admitted to hospital due to Dengue lose their life worldwide.