Dengue comes with changed symptoms

This year, two severe forms of dengue viruses, mostly category three and four infected and hospitalized at least 8,565 patients, doctors said.

Category three and four dengue viruses causes plasma leakage in patients, considered to be  potentially deadly complications besides fluid accumulation, respiratory distress, severe bleeding and organ impairment.

In previous years, high fever with severe headache, pain behind eyes, muscles and joint pains, nausea, vomiting, swollen glands or rashes were the dengue symptoms.

Now, even within 12 hours of catching low fever dengue patients are developing shock syndrome or severe dengue, Dhaka Shishu Hospital epidemiologist Kinkar Ghosh told New Age.

Severe dengue symptoms usually become visible to doctors in three to seven days after the first symptoms appear together with  temperature falling below 100°F and severe abdominal  pains, persistent vomiting, rapid breathing, bleeding gums, fatigue, restlessness and blood in vomit.

This year, the symptoms appear much earlier.

Once severe dengue occurs, the next 24–48 hours can be lethal needing proper medical care to prevent further complications and the risk of death.

Doctors said that all the four distinct categories of dengue, caused by a Flaviviridae virus,  are  closely related, the serotypes of the virus cause dengue-1 (DEN-1), dengue-2 (DEN-2), dengue-3(DEN-3) and dengue-4(DEN-4).

Recovery from infection by a stereotype  provides lifelong immunity against that particular serotype.

However, cross-immunity to the other serotypes after recovery is only partial and temporary.

Subsequent infections by other serotypes increase the risk of developing severe dengue.

Health Services director for communicable disease control Sanya Tahmina told New Age that through observation they found that the patients with the DEN- 3 serotype increased this year.

But she said identification of the serotype was less important than management of the patients.

‘Diagnosis of all the patients were neither possible nor necessary to detect which type of dengue infected them rather proper treatment is important,’ she said.

Dhaka Medical College principal Khan Abul Kalam Azad, a noted medicine specialist, said that the menace of DEN-1 and DEN-2 serotypes were more visible in Bangladesh in previous years.

‘But this year we are seeing DEN-3 and DEN-4 serotypes of dengue,’ he told New Age.

‘When the patients are getting infected with dengue for the second or the third time, the new patterns are found and they suffer from shock syndrome or severe dengue,’ he said.

The risks are more for the patients of severe dengue who have already kidney, heart, brain, liver and respiratory diseases, Azad said.

He said for severe dengue, medical care by physicians and nurses experienced with the effects and progression of the disease can save lives. Maintenance of the patient’s body fluid volume and prevention of plasma leakage are critical to severe dengue care.

Azad advised suspected dengue patients not to get panicked, but to consult doctors, especially at Outpatient Departments of the government’s medical college hospitals and other government hospitals.

Kinkar said that the Dhaka Shishu Hospital admitted and treated 265 dengue patients this year.

He said that the number of severe dengue patients increased this year.

‘The signs and symptoms of dengue patients are different this year,’ he said, adding, ‘many patients developed severe dengue infection within 12 hours of catching fever.’

Usually, it takes at least three days to develop severe dengue, he said.

Dhaka Shishu Hospital opened a dedicated dengue ward and trained 265 doctors to manage dengue patients, therefore, it has the capacity to diagnose dengue instantly.

Kinkar advised people not to delay in consulting  doctors if they suspected that their children were infected with dengue virus.

The dengue outbreak with hundreds of patients getting hospitalized created a huge panic among public.

On Wednesday, at least 560 new dengue patients took admission at different hospitals, the highest ever for any day since 2000.

The government’s health emergency and operation control room data showed at least 2058 dengue patients took treatments from different hospitals on Wednesday.

In the first 24 days of July, at least 6,421 dengue patients were hospitalized and 8,565 since January, five of them died although according to unofficial estimates, at least 27 dengue patients died since January.

Dengue infection also spread outside the capital with at least 179 getting hospitalized in Gazipur, Khulna, Jashore, Kushtia, Barishal and Chattogram.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net