Symptoms & clinical features: of Dengue - Dengue symptoms are very much like flu (influenza) but unfortunately if not checked in time can escalates to dengue haemorrhagic fever. This is caused by any one of the four types of virus’s, and for the most part it is the urban species Aedes aegypti. Recovery from dengue provides immunity from that variant alone but the patient is still susceptible to the other three.
The clinical features of dengue fever vary according to the age of the patient. Usually infants and young children may develop a fever with rash but for adult’s young and old it may be a mild fever or one of abrupt onset of high fever. It is accompanied by excruciating joint pain known as "breakbone fever," accompanied by severe headache, pain behind the eyes, nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite.
3-4 days after the fever, rashes erupt. The fever usually continues for two to seven days and can be as high as 105.8°F. With high fever, patient may suffer from convulsions and other complications such as enlargement of the liver and in extreme cases circulatory failure and in 5%of cases can be fatal. Patients are known to go into a critical state of shock and die within 12 to 24 hours on one hand and /or quickly recover following appropriate medical treatment on the other. If treated correctly the illness can last around 10 days but a patient may take a month to recover completely, especially the older kids and young adults as compared to young children.
However in moderate DHF cases, all signs and symptoms subside as soon as the fever drops. Since there is no specific treatment it requires appropriate medical care and maintenance of the patient's circulating fluid volume is critical to DHF.
Sometimes dengue fever could be mistaken for any other type of flu so when patients experience severe abdominal pain, persistent vomiting or bleeding from any site or blue or black discoloration under the skin or stools, these could all be signs indicative of DHF
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