Dengue fever is a virus-based disease spread by Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes

Dengue fever is caused by a virus that is being transmitted through the bites of infective female Aedes mosquitoes. This virus is not contagious and cannot be spread directly from person to person. There must be a person-to-mosquito-to-another-person pathway. However, presently there is no specific medicine or antibiotic to treat dengue caused by the virus.

It seems that dengue strikes people with low levels of immunity. The body contains two types of blood cells: red and white. White blood cells help to fight off illnesses. Dengue fever decreases the amount of white blood cells, thus exposing the patient to illness.

Some of the symptoms of dengue fever are: very high fever, nausea, headache, rash and dangerously low blood platelets count.

Dengue starts with chills, headache, pain upon moving the eyes, and low backache. Painful aching in the legs and joints occurs during the first hours of illness. The temperature rises quickly as high as 104° F (40° C), with relative low heart rate (bradycardia) and low blood pressure (hypotension). The eyes become reddened. A flushing or pale pink rash comes over the face and then disappears. The glands (lymph nodes) in the neck and groin are often swollen.

Fever and other signs of dengue last for 2 - 4 days, followed by rapid drop in temperature (defervescence) with profuse sweating. This precedes a period with normal temperature and a sense of well-being that lasts about a day. A second rapid rise in temperature follows. A characteristic rash appears along with the fever and spreads from the extremities to cover the entire body except the face. The palms and soles may be bright red and swollen.

Appropriate medical care frequently saves the lives of patients with the more serious dengue hemorrhagic fever. There is no specific treatment for classic dengue fever, and most people recover within 2 weeks. To help with recovery, health care experts recommend:

1) Getting plenty of bed rest.

2) Drinking lots of fluids for adequate hydration.

3) Taking medicine to reduce fever/severe headache and joint/muscle pain but Aspirin and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs should be avoided as these drugs may worsen the bleeding tendency associated with some of these infections.

4) A platelet transfusion is indicated in rare cases if the platelets level drops significantly (below 20,000) or if there are significant bleeding.