Dengue Fever Symptoms, Diagnosis, Precautions for Your Children

Dengue fever is a disease caused by a family of viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes. Symptoms such as headache, fever, exhaustion, severe joint and muscle pain, swollen glands (lymphadenopathy), and rash. The presence (the "dengue triad") of fever, rash, and headache (and other pains) is particularly characteristic of dengue fever.

Dengue is prevalent throughout the tropics and subtropics. Outbreaks have occurred recently in the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Cuba, and in Paraguay in South America, and Costa Rica in Central America.

Because a virus causes dengue fever, there is no specific medicine or antibiotic to treat it. For typical dengue fever, the treatment is purely concerned with relief of the symptoms (symptomatic).

• The acute phase of the illness with fever and myalgia lasts about one to two weeks.
• Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) is a specific syndrome that tends to affect children under 10 years of age. It causes abdominal pain, hemorrhage (bleeding), and circulatory collapse (shock).
• The prevention of dengue fever requires control or eradication of the mosquitoes carrying the virus that causes dengue.

There is currently no vaccine available for dengue fever.

What is Dengue Fever?

Dengue fever is a disease caused by a family of viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes. It is an acute illness of sudden onset that u