Hemorrhagic Dengue Fever;Characteristics, Treatment and Immunization of Dengue Fever

    What are the symptoms of dengue fever? What are the characteristics of dengue fever? What is the treatment for dengue fever?? And what sort of immunization can be done for dengue fever??      

    Hello everyone, a few days ago I posted a short article about hemorrhagic dengue fever. Well, having posted that, my interest to seek more info about it raised. Therefore, I surfed the internet to find some more(may be)useful information about the

characteristics, treatment and immunization of dengue fever. To sum up, I found below related information.

    Dengue viruses are actually transmitted to humans through the bites of infective female Aedes mosquitoes. Mosquitoes generally acquire the virus while feeding on the blood of an infected person. After virus incubation for eight to 10 days, an infected mosquito is capable, during probing and blood feeding, of transmitting the virus for the rest of its life. Infected female mosquitoes may also transmit the virus to their offspring by transovarial (via the eggs) transmission, but the role of this in sustaining transmission of the virus to humans has not yet been defined.

    Infected humans are the main carriers and multipliers of the virus, serving as a source of the virus for uninfected mosquitoes. The virus circulates in the blood of infected humans for two to seven days, at approximately the same time that they have a fever; Aedes mosquitoes may acquire the virus when they feed on an individual during this period. Some studies have shown that monkeys in some parts of the world play a similar role in transmission. 

The Characteristics/Symptoms of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever

     Dengue fever is a severe, flu-like illness that affects infants, young children and adults, but seldom causes death.

   The clinical features of dengue fever vary according to the age of the patient. Infants and young children may have a fever with rash. Older children and adults may have either a mild fever or the classical incapacitating disease with abrupt onset and high fever, severe headache, pain behind the eyes, muscle and joint pains, and rash.

    Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) is a potentially deadly complication that is characterized by high fever, often with enlargement of the liver, and in severe cases circulatory failure. The illness often begins with a sudden rise in temperature accompanied by facial flush and other flu-like symptoms. The fever usually continues for two to seven days and can be as high as 41°C, possibly with convulsions and other complications.

   In moderate DHF cases, all signs and symptoms abate after the fever subsides. In severe cases, the patient's condition may suddenly deteriorate after a few days of fever; the temperature drops, followed by signs of circulatory failure, and the patient may rapidly go into a critical state of shock and die within 12 to 24 hours, or quickly recover following appropriate medical treatment.

The Treatment for Hemorrhagic Dengue Fever

   So sad to say that there is unfortunetely no specific treatment for dengue fever. 

    For DHF, medical care by physicians and nurses experienced with the effects and progression of the complicating hemorrhagic fever can frequently save lives - decreasing mortality rates from more than 20% to less than 1%. Maintenance of the patient's circulating fluid volume is the central feature of DHF care.

Immunization of Hemorrhagic Dengue Fever

  There is no vaccine to protect against dengue. Although progress is underway, developing a vaccine against the disease - in either its mild or severe form - is challenging. 

With four closely related viruses that can cause the disease, the vaccine must immunize against all four types to be effective. 

There is limited understanding of how the disease typically behaves and how the virus interacts with the immune system. 

There is a lack of laboratory animal models available to test immune responses to potential vaccines. 

  Despite these challenges, two vaccine candidates have advanced to evaluation in human subjects in countries with endemic disease, and several potential vaccines are in earlier stages of development. WHO provides technical advice and guidance to countries and private partners to support vaccine research and evaluation. 

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Hemorrhagic Dengue Fever