Dengue fever, caused by Aedes mosquitoes has spread havoc in the daily life of people and yet there are no rigorous studies, medicine availability, or vaccines. In conversation with Dr. Dikshya Gautam, a consultant physician actively working in Alka Hospi

 

  1. What is the recent situation of Dengue fever?
  • Honestly, it is getting worse. People regardless of a particular age are prone to Dengue. Out of almost 60 patients per day, almost 45 of them are Dengue patients. Strangely, Lalitpur is comparatively getting more dengue than Kathmandu. Severe cases are also going up and everyone is needing to be more careful.
  • 20-30% of them are severely affected for which they have been hospitalized.

     
  1. What are the symptoms of Dengue?
  • The first symptom is fever. Along with that, severe headache, eyeball pain, muscle pain, joint ache, cramps, low blood pressure, low numbers of platelet, low WBC, vomit, and gum and nose bleeding, have been the symptoms.
  • In case of a major case, we have seen liver swelling, abdominal pain, high decrement in platelet count, and extreme dehydration.

     
  1. How does Dengue work in the body?
  • When the Aedes mosquito bites a person, the virus enters the bloodstream and causes infection. After that, the immunity severely lowers, the platelet counts decrease, and the symptoms that I mentioned above can be noticed.
  • It is an irregular disc-shaped element responsible for blood clotting. For example, when you get a cut, the clotting of blood tends to stop the bleeding. The human body contains around 1,50,000 platelets, however, I have seen patients’ platelets decrement to 20,000. In that case, the patient is admitted to ICU and given platelets supplement.

 

  1. Are there any antibiotics that can be consumed while having dengue fever?
  • There is no Dengue medicine available.  We prescribe only Paracetamol. However, 500 mg of Cetamol is not enough for most patients. Therefore, some of them consume 6 (2 at once) medicines per day every 8 hours. Other medicines containing caffeine are also prescribed but not antibiotics. If at all, antibiotics or even Brufen will only cause other side effects. As a matter of fact, there is no medicine to increase the number of platelets. 
  • The best medicine is healthy chicken soup, fish soup, fruits, vegetables, and proper rest.

 

 

  1. Can you get Dengue fever multiple times?
  • Yes. There are different strains types of Dengue fever. Usually, when you get dengue of one strain and recover, the other types of strains can still get you sick. So, you might get immune to one strain but still is prone to another one.

     
  1. Is there any time frame to be extra careful with dengue mosquitoes?
  • There is! The dengue mosquitoes tend to be more active in the morning and evening. To be more precise, (6-10 AM) and (3-6 PM), which is mostly when we are not majorly conscious of mosquitoes.

     
  1. A few Dengue cases incidents:
  • Just a few days ago, a patient got a fever. The next day, he was admitted to ICU due to a severe decrement in Platelets, dropped blood pressure level, and was given Platelets. Later, he had to be dialyzed and eventually died. For him, it was probably the second time getting dengue infected. So, none must take it lightly.

     
  1. Is dengue fever contagious?
  • I have encountered so many patients complaining about dengue being contagious. This is not true. When one member of the family gets dengue, the others are most likely to get it. However, the reason is that the very infected mosquito can contain the virus for up to 60 days. Within those 60 days, the mosquito hiding in the home might bite others as well to get them fever. For clarity, it is the mosquito bite that is causing dengue.

     

Mosquito repellents:

Mosquito repellents are the most. I think right now even Odomus are in shortage. But, if you get any or have one, then please use them. for the children, Odomus is not recommended instead there are repelling patches. Other than that, the best way is to wear full sleeves and stay aware.
 

Dengue vaccine:

In today’s context of Nepal, the vaccine is available only for 5-16 years old children, and on top of that, there is a criterion; One needs to be Dengue infected once before. it is yet to be studied why others are not made accessible to the vaccine.

The death rate is 1 in 100, and only tropical and Asian countries get Dengue, maybe for that reason, there has been no rigorous study or research about it. hence, there is no specific medicine as well.
 

Suggestion:

Make sure to clear out the bushes in front or around the home. Wear mosquito repellents and full sleeves. If you go for a walk in the morning or evening, make sure to be extra careful. Aedes do get active in the clean water especially if there are small sinkholes around the homes. So, make sure to fill that up with sand to avoid mosquitoes.

Do not worry about the rash. For Dengue, rashes are seen especially around the recovery. There are anti-rash medicine and soothing lotion available, which we suggest applying.

 Make sure to get a dengue checkup only after 72 hours of getting a fever for an accurate result.
 

Incidents:

I have encountered patients who get dengue check-ups with multiple doctors just for reassurance. Especially, the second week is more difficult for a dengue patient, so they insist on a typhoid checkup as well. It is strange how they almost force to prescribe them antibiotics when it does not work. Dengue takes its time of two weeks for complete recovery.

On the contrary, we also get tourist patients and they are very relaxed about it. They do what we tell them to do which helps them in early recovery.

People have a preconceived notion of Jiwanjal to be taken only during Diarrhea. So, they do not want to take them as well. (Smiles) It is difficult having such patients.