Dengue fever is a viral infection that spreads by such insects as mosquitoes in the tropical regions of the planet. There are two types of it:
- Classical With this course of infection, two-wave fever, exanthema, arthralgia and lymphadenopathy are observed. This course of the disease can be called benign.
- Hemorrhagic fever. It is worth noting that it occurs much less frequently. In this case, thrombohemorrhagic syndrome, shock is manifested. High probability of death.
This disease is considered the most common type of arbovirus disease in humans. They also include West Nile fever, the treatment of which has not yet been fully studied.
Medical history
Already in 1779, a rather detailed explanation of the nature of this disease appeared in Indonesia. The name "Dengue fever" itself appeared in the USA in 1869. At that time, a huge number of people were affected by the disease, and fatalities were common practice.
In 1907, scientists found that tropical fever (another name) is of a viral nature and mosquitoes are its causative agent. Namely, such species of them: Egyptian bite and tiger mosquito. But the latter carries the infection very rarely. Sick people and monkeys can act as sources of the disease, in some cases, proteins and bats. In mosquitoes, the ability to become infected occurs one to two weeks after the virus enters their body. Such mosquitoes can infect throughout their lives, that is, 1-3 months.
Human infection occurs after an insect bite. The virus penetrates into the cells of the reticuloendothelial system, into the vascular endothelium, in which the virus replicates.
7 hours before the temperature rises, viremia can be observed. Infection, getting into the blood of a person, soon spreads to all organs: kidneys, liver, brain, muscles and connective tissue.
Symptoms of the disease
The incubation period lasts from five to eight days. There are several clinical forms:
- false rheumatic;
- icteric;
- simulating appendicitis;
- meningo-encephalitis.
But the main ones are called two such species as hemorrhagic and classical dengue fever.
The latter usually proceeds in a rather mild form. Symptoms occur only with primary infection. Such a disease is not particularly dangerous. It begins acutely, with a sharp jump in temperature to 39-40 degrees. There is a headache, chills, pain in the joints, eyeballs and red fever (erythematous rash).
Two days later, vomiting and nausea can be noted. After four days, the temperature drops sharply and for some time the state of health improves. Then comes the second wave of temperature. With dengue fever, the syndrome of a “lead cape on the shoulders” is observed, which manifests itself in severe weakness and complete impotence.
A scarlet-like or maculopapular rash appears. It is always accompanied by severe itching. After a similar rash, peeling remains.
This disease can be infected four times in a lifetime. When re-infection occurs, another type of fever develops - dengue hemorrhagic fever.
This form is already quite difficult. The symptoms that were mentioned above are added:
Bloody diarrhea
- bloody vomiting;
- bruises on the body;
- petechiae and stuff.
The face of a person infected with fever turns purple-red, his eyes shine feverishly. In addition, there is a sharp drop in pressure. There are four stages of hemorrhagic fever, with the third and fourth being shock. If you do not start treating the disease on time, an ICE syndrome (a violation of normal blood coagulation) will appear. In 20% of cases, the patient dies.