Dengue Fever Abstract

Abstract

Dengue fever is a disease caused by a family of viruses that are transmitted by Aedes mosquitos. Anyone can be affected with the disease but it tends to be severe in people with compromise immune system. However, the virus is not contagious and an attack of dengue produces immunity for a lifetime to that particular viral serotype to which the patient is exposed.

The continuous increase of outbreaks of dengue cases and the fact that it has no vaccine and specific medicine caused an uproar not only to the government but also to the netizens that are worried for their safety which led them into believing that the plant tawa-tawa, a plant usually seen in our backyards and roadside has chemical components that can help in healing the victims

Clinical observations with regard to the uncertainty of immunity from dengue have been experimentally confirmed. Natives or the community in the areas in which dengue is endemic are immune, but this said immunity is believed to be acquired and not natural or they are not born with this immunity. The incubation period of dengue fever in non-immune individuals under the natural conditions encountered in the Philippines is usually from four to seven days, inclusive, exceptionally extending to the tenth day after an infective biting, but the onset of symptoms may be delayed until the eleventh day in the case of individuals who are partly immune. Carefully controlled studies to identify and attempts to isolate the causative micro-organism of dengue by so far have been not successful. It is thought, however, that negative results should not be regarded as conclusive unless based on material obtained during the first 24 hours of the illness, which is almost impossible except by using experimentally induced cases, and this was not done. Campaigns against Aëdes argenteus must be based on a consideration of its life habits; it is one of the most highly domesticated of mosquitos and apparently does not hibernate; it disappears when the atmospheric temperature falls appreciably below 59° F. (15 C.) and remains there for any great length of time; it prefers to take blood from man; it is essentially a day-biter, but may take blood at night; its average length of life under natural conditions is probably not more than six weeks; it breeds by preference inside or close to human habitations; it practically always deposits its eggs in clear water; its eggs, being very resistant to