A neighbor’s son died of Dengue. He was about River’s age. He had been in and out of the hospital two weeks before his death. Apparently, his fever went away and he was already feeling well, thus being dismissed from the hospital from where he was confined. He went to school, played and did his activities normally as before he was confined. Two weeks later, his fever came back and was brought to the hospital again, but the next day, he died. Hospital said he was already suffering TYPE 4  DENGUE.

So what is this deadly disease and how do we get this? We– young and old, child or adult can get hit with this disease.  Like a few months back, my brother was confined in the hospital for Dengue and had blood transfusion. As with Lili’s case, the doctor, Dra. Sanchez of Polymedic, substituting for Lili’s Pedia, who at that time was in a convention, said that it was just viral in the end, but before everything was normalized, Dengue was what we had in mind. In addition, her increased heart rate even when her fever is not present was quite alarming. So during our three day confinement, we had so many tests subjected on Lili. There’s CBC or the complete blood count which she had starting Sunday, then again Tuesday and of course, Wednesday to Friday. Urinalysis as well as stool exam, X-ray and even a possible skin test. But on the third day everything became normal, especially her heart rate. Her fevers in the afternoons finally subsided and everything else from day  1 of confinement was normal. Vital signs normalized. She had to be checked for blood pressure as well as heart rate every four hours. And to keep her immunity to sickness and complications, strong, she had IV fluids at the rate of 60 drops per hour. Plus I force her to eat no matter what. What was alarming before she was confined was the fact that she had refused eating and  so we decided to have her confined for immediate testing and give us the right amount of help and care for our sick Lili.

So aside from knowing already the known fact that Dengue is transmitted by the bite of an Aedes mosquito infected with any one of the four dengue viruses, I learned a few more about the deadly disease.. Of course, it occurs in tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world, like our country, The Philippines. It is also good to know that symptoms appear 3—14 days after the infective bite. And like what I mentioned earlier, Dengue fever is a febrile illness that affects infants, young children and adults.

If we ask what the symptoms are, they range from a mild fever, to incapacitating high fever, with severe headache, pain behind the eyes, muscle and joint pain, and of course, the appearance of rash. What is fearful about Dengue is that, there are no specific antiviral medicines for it. It is a must  to maintain hydration.  By the way, I read that the use of acetylsalicylic acid (e.g. aspirin) and non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (e.g. Ibuprofen) is not recommended. As with Dengue hemorrhagic fever (fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, bleeding), it is a potentially lethal complication that affects mainly children. Of course, early clinical diagnosis and careful clinical management by experienced physicians and nurses increase survival of patients.

FYI:  There are four strains of dengue – types 1, 2, 3, and 4. A person who recovered from one type of dengue virus is not immune to the other types.