With the rainy season approaching, dengue fever is one of the diseases which spread all over the country. Thousands of people are infected every year from Aedes Mosquitoes, the disease carrier. It is a common disease in the children, aged 5-14 years old. Even if it is not a new disease, it can be resulting in fatal if we are not treated properly. Thus, parents should have a well-understanding of the dengue fever to prevent the risk on family members.

Dengue fever and its carrier

Dengue fever is the result of the dengue virus which diverts into 4 species. It is transmitted by Aedes Mosquitoes. When the infectious host is bitten by the mosquito during a fever period, which has plenty of virus in the bloodstream, the virus is transmitted to the mosquito's stomach and starts populating. Then, the virus will be relocated to the salivary gland ready to be transmitted to another bitten host which will become infectious.

Normally, the incubation period is 3-14 days. Most people will show symptoms 5-8 days after they are bitten. The most significant symptom is an acute high fever for 2-7 days and drastically decreases, loss of appetite, redness in the face, headache, pain in the eye socket, body ache, vomit, and rash around arms, legs, and body as there are bleeding through the skin and hands. Moreover, stomachache is possible due to liver enlargement which the infectious can feel the pain when pressing the right rib.

Elimination of Aedes mosquitoes

Since the Aedes mosquito is a carrier for many diseases, prevention of dengue fever has to be done by removing the mosquito’s habitat which is the water reservoirs. This can be achieved by the 3Cs principle which is 1) Cleaning, keep the house tidy to eliminate blind corner which mosquito to reside 2) Clearing garbage, clear all containers which have water in them such as broken tree pot, can, plastic bottle, tire 3) Collecting water, replace contaminated water with clean water and close the container properly.

If the container is used to contain water for usage (not for drinking) and cannot be closed, 1% Temephos (Abate) should be put into the water with the ratio of 1 g per 10 L of water. The said substance shall be effective 1 hour after employed and stay efficient for up to ‘3 months. The container should be clean to remove all moss in order that the surface is suitable for Temephos coating. More water can be put into the Temephos-filled water without cleaning the container until 3 months after Temephos filling. However, if it is possible to clean the container weekly, Temephos is not essential.

It is important not to put Temephos into the drinking water but properly seal the container instead. For containers for water-based plants or vases, water should be replaced every 7 days or put fish in to eliminate the wriggler. All abandoned wells should be dried. Temephos is not required in contaminated water reservoirs as it is not the habitat of the Aedes mosquito.

Furthermore, to protect your children from Aedes mosquito, sleeping inside the net or installing a mosquito wire screen. Ensure that the wire screen is in good condition, wear proper clothes, and apply mosquito repellent.

Precautions for a Dengue fever patient

If children have a high fever, it should be assumed to be dengue fever, and be aware not to take aspirin as it prohibits blood platelets which leads to fatal shock. Paracetamol is safe to use for the dengue fever patient. Apart from skin bleeding, to distinguish dengue fever from flu, flu symptoms include coughing and sneezing from bronchitis, neck pain, and stuffy nose. However, all the mentioned symptoms are not found in dengue fever patients. Moreover, flu patients are reported to have headaches, fatigue, and loss of appetite while the pain in the eye socket and pain around the right rib due to liver enlargement is common for dengue fever patients.

For children with dengue fever, the critical signs to hospitalize are loss of appetite, exhaustion, restlessness, nausea, vomit, stomachache, bleeding which includes nosebleed, black stool, thirsty, no urinate for 4-6 hours, cold, and darken. Normally, children with dengue fever are hospitalized for 5-7 days which costs a significant amount of money. Thus, the Speedy Cash e-card is another option to provide emergency cash on hand in the account for 24 hours with a 0% interest rate for 3 months. The service can be easily applied through SCB EASY application. This is the alternative that can get us through this difficult pandemic time. More detail can be found here. – Click-  here-

Reference

https://www.komchadluek.net/news/regional/376763
https://covid-19.kapook.com/view221315.html
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