Picture by Victoria
Map by Tiffany
Vietnamese Dengue poster courtesy of Ngoc Tran
intro background
dengue pond
Dengue fever or the more severe and luckily less frequent form dengue hemorrhagic fever(DHF) is a virus passed from human to human by infected female Aedes Aegypti mosquitoes.
It is nicknamed break-bone fever because it sometimes causes joint and muscle pain which feels like your bones are breaking.
There are about 50-100 million infections world wide every year.
Dengue (pronounced den' gee) is a disease caused by any one of four closely related viruses (DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, or DEN-4) collectively called flaviviruses. You can be infected by more than one type of virus at a time.
It's been around for over 200 years. It's a tormenter that gets under your skin and into your blood. Yes, you know who I'm talking about Dengue Fever

Dengue Fever

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Symptoms

person with dengue fever

 


5-6 days after your bite you usually get a high fever and sweating, severe headaches, retro-orbital (behind the eyes) pain, severe joint and muscle pains, nausea, vomiting and a rash 3-4 days after the fever.

Generally, younger children have a milder illness than older children and adults. If a nose bleeds, bleeding gums or bruising occur a more severe form might be present (DHF).

Dengue hemorrhagic fever is characterized by a fever that lasts from 2 to 7 days, with general signs and symptoms that could occur with many other illnesses (e.g., nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and headache). This stage is followed by bleeding from nose, gums, or the skin, and possibly internal bleeding. The smallest blood vessels (capillaries) become excessively permeable ("leaky"), and allow fluids to escape from the blood vessels.

This may lead to failure of the circulatory system and shock, which can cause death. that may lead to coma, shock or death.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Affected Areas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prevention

Vietnamese dengue prevention  poster
map of affected areas

 

Dengue fever is often found in tropical rainy places. It's found in Africa, Southeast Asia China, India, Middle East, Caribbean and Central and South America, Australia and the South and Central Pacific.

There is no real treatment for Dengue fever. Most people recover in two weeks. You should get plenty of bed rest, drink lots of fluids or take medicine to reduce the fever. If you have Dengue fever you should not take aspirin as this can cause bleeding. If the virus is severe go to the hospital. There is no vaccine at present. As with dengue, there is no specific medication for DHF. If detected early, it can be effectively treated by fluid replacement therapy. Hospitalization is needed to manage DHF properly.

Dengue is transmitted to people by the bite of an Aedes mosquito that is infected with a dengue virus. The mosquito becomes infected with dengue virus when it bites a person who has dengue or DHF, and after about a week can transmit the virus while biting a healthy person. Dengue cannot be spread directly from person to person.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

larvae
Picture by Tiffany
What's the mosquitoes' favorite song?
I've Got Under Your Skin

Picture drawn by Tiffany
Colored by Tejas

Writing by Arun and Victoria
Reference: Please see credits

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