Uncomplicated Dengue Essay

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1. Overview
Dengue, also known as “breakbone fever,” due to the intense pain experienced by some patients, is a mosquito-borne viral illness found throughout the tropics and recognized as a worldwide problem since the 1950s. During the 1960s and 1970s, it progressively increased as a health problem, spreading from its primary location in tropical countries to smaller cities and towns in endemic countries. Nowadays, dengue is considered an emerging disease, with reported cases increasing globally every year, making it the most common arthropod-borne disease in the world. The infection is caused by the dengue virus, transmitted to humans through the bite of the Aedes mosquito. The disease has a large percentage of clinically asymptomatic cases. When symptomatic, it is associated with one of three clinical presentations: dengue fever, dengue hemorrhagic fever, and dengue shock syndrome.1,2
Treatment of uncomplicated dengue cases is only supportive, including plenty of oral or intravenous fluids during the febrile period and acetaminophen as an analgesic and antipyretic. Dengue-associated deaths …show more content…

Dengue infections can be asymptomatic or produce several syndromes that are conditioned by age and immunological status, the most common being an early febrile stage (including fever, malaise, headache, body pains, and rash), that can be followed by a tendency for bleeding that can progress to severe hemorrhages. Dengue is now considered a global health threat, endemic or epidemic in almost every country located in the tropics. It is estimated that there are over 100 million cases of dengue worldwide each year. Because dengue is a nationally notifiable disease, all suspected cases should be reported to the local country’s health

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