Dengue

Dengue is an infectious disease caused by a virus. You can get it if an infected mosquito bites you. It is common in warm, wet areas of the world. Outbreaks occur in the rainy season. Dengue is rare in the United States.

Symptoms include a high fever, headaches, joint and muscle pain, vomiting and a rash. Most people with dengue recover within 2 weeks. Until then, drinking lots of fluids, resting and taking non-aspirin fever-reducing medicines might help. Sometimes dengue turns into dengue hemorrhagic fever, which causes bleeding from your nose, gums or under your skin. It can also become dengue shock syndrome, which causes massive bleeding and shock. These forms of dengue are life-threatening.

To lower your risk when traveling in dengue-prone countries

Wear insect repellent with DEET
Wear clothes that cover your arms, legs and feet
Close unscreened doors and windows

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

Dengue Fever on Wikipedia

'''Dengue''' and '''dengue haemorrhagic fever''' (DHF) are acute febrile diseases, found in the tropics, with a geographical spread similar to malaria. Caused by one of four closely related virus serotypes of the genus ''Flavivirus'', family ''Flaviviridae'', each serotype is sufficiently different that there is no cross-protection and epidemics caused by multiple serotypes (hyperendemicity) can occur. Dengue is transmitted to humans by the mosquito ''Aedes aegypti'' (rarely ''Aedes albopictus'').

Signs and symptoms

The disease is manifested by a sudden onset of fever, with severe headache, joint and muscular pains (myalgias and arthralgias, severe pain gives it the name ''break-bone fever'') and rashes; the dengue rash is characteristically bright red, petechia and usually appears first on the lower limbs and the chest - in some patients, it spreads to cover most of the body. There may also be gastritis with some combination of associated abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea. Some cases develop much milder symptoms, than can, when no rash is present, be missdiagnosed as a flu or other viriasis. This is the cause of some travelers from tropical areas passing through denge in their home countries without being properly diagnosed. The classical dengue fever lasts about six to seven days with a smaller peak of fever at the trailing end of the fever (the so-called "biphasic pattern"). Clinically, the platelet count will drop until the patient's temperature is normal. Cases of DHF also shows higher fever, haemorrhagic phenomena, thrombocytopenia and haemoconcentration. A small proportion of cases leads to dengue shock syndrome (DDS) which has a high mortality rate.

Diagnosis

The diagnosis of dengue is usually made clinically. The classical picture is of high fever with no localising source of infection, a petechial rash with thrombocytopenia and relative leukopenia. Serology and PCR ... [ Read More ]

External Resources

Aedes aegypti and Dengue fever - Paper on Aedes aegypti as a disease vector.

CDC Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases (DVBID) - Details about this national and international reference center for vector-borne viral and bacterial diseases. Location: Colorado, USA. Covers disorders such as lyme, plague, yellow fever, west nile, virus, and dengue fever. Publications, links and details about specimen submissions.

Hemorrhagic Fevers - Pointers to information about hemorrhagic fevers including Ebola and Dengue Fever

Changes in the Distribution of Dengue Transmission Under Climate Warming Scenarios - Abstract of paper showing that dengue fever and other insect-borne diseases can be predicted to spread from the tropics to temperate areas with global warming and flooding.

Dengue Fever - Travel Medicine for the Adventure Traveler by Alan Spira, M.D. , DTM&H - Dengue Fever is a viral infection common throughout the tropical regions of the world. It is spread by Aedes mosquitoes.

Dengue Fever Hub - Offers a definition followed by links to overviews, case reports, studies and FAQs.

WHO Division of Control of Tropical Diseases - Dengue and DHF Control - Information on efforts made to control dengue fever.

Dengue Fever in children - Find out more about dengue fever and its complications and treatment.

CDC: Dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever. - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presents detailed information about this mosquito-born disease, including maps of distribution of the mosquito and the disease, and photographs of the mosquito and the virus.

Risk Factors in Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever - A technical discussion of an epidemiological study of dengue fever in Yangon.

Dengue

Dengue Fever on Wikipedia

Signs and symptoms

Diagnosis

External Resources

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