Harmful misunderstanding about dengue fever

Statistics from the Hanoi Department of Health show that the cumulative number of infections since the beginning of the year has nearly doubled compared to the same period in 2023 (from 408 cases in 2023 to 783 cases in 2024).

In Ho Chi Minh City, in the first week of June 2024 alone, 130 infections were recorded, increasing the cumulative number of cases from the beginning of the year to June 9 to a total of 3,677 cases.

As of early June 2024, the country recorded 22,000 cases of dengue fever, including 3 deaths.

Recently, the dengue fever vaccine was approved by the Ministry of Health to increase advanced measures in dengue fever prevention, in addition to activities to control mosquitoes that cause the disease.

With this disease, experts warn that there are some groups of people who are susceptible to severe dengue fever: People under 4 years old, especially under 12 months old.

People with underlying diseases, easy bleeding, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, blood clotting disorders, difficult to stop bleeding. Unfortunately, when dengue fever, thrombocytopenia causes bleeding, stopping bleeding is very complicated.

The obese group reacts very strongly to dengue fever, the rate of severe illness in this group is higher. When severe illness occurs, treatment is much more difficult.

Pregnant women with dengue fever can give birth at any time. If platelets decrease, the risk of bleeding during labor is very high.

People with blood type O may be heavier than people with other blood types; white people are usually heavier than Asian people... but these are only secondary factors.

Talking about the danger level of the disease, specialist doctor II Nguyen Trung Cap, Deputy Director of the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases, shared that recently, the hospital recorded an unfortunate death case of a student who had a high fever for 3-4 days, was treated at home and had a friend taking care of him.

After the patient's fever subsided, the caregiver went to school, but the patient went into shock at home. By the time they were taken to the hospital, it was too late.

There is a similar case of an elderly person, when the fever is high in phase 1, the children stay home to take care of the child, when the fever is better in phase 2, the children go to work, leaving the old man at home alone, by the time he returns at the end of the day, the old man's condition has worsened.

The most worrying thing in dengue fever patients is shock, which often occurs in phase 2 and is difficult to monitor. If the patient receives good intervention right from the time there are warning signs of shock, they will recover quickly. "If it is not detected and progresses to shock, the situation will be extremely bad and the survival rate will not be high," said Dr. Cap.

The Deputy Director of the Central Tropical Hospital added that dengue fever is divided into different stages (phases): Phase 1 is when the patient has a high fever, headache, and discomfort lasting about 3 days. This phase makes the patient very uncomfortable due to high fever, headache, and vomiting, but rarely causes serious complications, only fever reduction and oral rehydration solution.

Phase 2, from the end of the 3rd day to the end of the 7th day. Patients have 2 conditions, in the group of patients with good progress (94% of people) will gradually recover. The remaining 6% of patients, risk of severe progress, blood in the blood vessels is concentrated. If severe, it can lead to hypotension, shock, because of fluid leakage from the blood vessel walls.

In the early stages, in the first 3 days, a positive test is important, but if you test on the 4th day, it may be negative.

Therefore, in some patients, even though they have dengue fever clinically, the test may be negative, and dengue fever must still be considered. The test the next day may be positive.

When receiving a test result, it is necessary to clearly understand which phase of the disease is being tested to know the value of the test.

Therefore, Dr. Cap recommends that a patient living in an area where dengue fever is prevalent, if they have a fever or signs of unusual bleeding, should go see a doctor to see if it is dengue fever.

Signs that the disease is at risk of becoming serious: The patient is tired (especially children, children who cried a lot a few days ago are now weak, the elderly may be lethargic, lethargic, slow);

Some patients have pain in the liver area; some patients have pain all over the abdomen; some patients vomit, feel nauseous (vomiting 3 times/8 hours is considered severe vomiting); bleeding gums, hemorrhage...; tests show thrombocytopenia, blood concentration, increased liver enzymes...

When one of these signs appears, one must go to a medical facility immediately for timely treatment. With timely treatment, the patient can usually be discharged after 2-3 days. If this stage is missed by 4-6 hours, the patient may fall into hypotension, shock, uncontrolled bleeding, and multiple organ failure.

"When you detect warning signs, you must go to a medical facility immediately. Because the treatment time for the patient to recover is not long, only a few hours," the leader of the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases emphasized.

In addition, experts also warn about harmful misunderstandings about dengue fever. One of the common misconceptions is that "dengue fever can only be contracted once in a lifetime". However, according to experts, there are 4 types of virus that cause dengue fever including DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3 and DEN-4.

Therefore, each time you get sick, your body only creates immunity to that type of virus, so the risk of getting sick from other types still exists. Not to mention, the risk of serious complications often increases from the second time you get sick onwards.

The second misconception is that "Aedes mosquitoes that transmit dengue fever are only found in stagnant water." In fact, Aedes mosquitoes also prefer places with clean water that has been left for a long time. At the same time, high-rise buildings are also home to mosquitoes.

Third, the misconception that "fever is gone means the disease is gone" is considered by experts to be a dangerous mistake. According to doctors, high fever is only the first symptom of dengue fever.

After the fever subsides, dengue shock syndrome with symptoms such as subcutaneous rash, nosebleeds, bone and joint pain, and nausea can suddenly occur.

More seriously, the patient may suffer from multiple organ failure, secondary infection, and even death. Therefore, the doctor's advice is that if the fever persists for 2 days or more without a clear cause, the patient should go to a medical facility for timely examination.

Another common mistake is to mistake dengue fever for other diseases. The symptoms of high fever, fatigue, headache, and nausea when suffering from dengue fever are often mistaken for the flu. Even when experiencing subcutaneous bleeding, many people still think it is just an allergy or just mild dengue fever, leading to subjectivity and not getting timely treatment.

Next, according to many people, only children get dengue fever. While epidemiological analysis in recent years shows that the rate of people over and under 15 years old getting dengue fever is almost equal.

The risk of severe complications between the two groups of patients is not much different. Due to subjectivity and possibly due to having had the disease many times, severe cases tend to be more common in adults. For example, the elderly, people with underlying diseases, immunodeficiency and pregnant women are high-risk groups.

At the same time, dengue fever cannot always be self-treated. However, many people think that they can recover by simply giving themselves IV fluids or buying oral medication. In fact, each stage of the disease will have its own treatment instructions.

Severe cases also require diagnosis, close clinical monitoring and treatment by a team of experienced doctors. According to Dr. Thai, this subjectivity is one of the leading causes of death from dengue fever.

Many people still believe that dengue fever only occurs during the rainy season. However, doctors say that the source of the disease is currently latent and stable. It only needs enough opportunity and conditions to break out.

Uncertain weather factors, urbanization, and human migration have caused dengue fever to occur almost all year round. Therefore, we must be vigilant and take preventive measures all year round, both in the dry season and the cold winter.

Some people's idea that "dengue fever is not deadly" is also a misconception. According to WHO, dengue fever is one of the top 10 threats to global health.

From day 2 to day 7 after getting sick is a dangerous period that requires close monitoring to promptly detect and treat serious complications.

Shock due to blood loss, plasma leakage, hypotension, and multiple organ failure can all be fatal. For pregnant women, dengue fever threatens the lives of both the mother and the fetus and leaves many sequelae for the child.

The above misconceptions make people neglect to take measures to prevent dengue fever, increasing the number of infections and serious complications, creating great pressure on the health sector.

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