Mosquito menace
In any other circumstances, someone who carries our blood, in all probability will be very dear to us unless it’s these freeloaders that we refer to as mosquitoes. You’re in a mammoth of trouble, if a mosquito sees you as its delicacy! Particularly the ones belonging to the class of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, because these two nuisance creators carry one of the four strains of virus that can give you Dengue fever.
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No need to burden yourself with the names of the species of these troublemakers or even the strain of viruses that they carry. However, attempt to grasp and acquaint yourself to the information on the infection’s warning signs, ways to escape it and remedial approaches. These cues and clues will undeniably come in handy in the time of distress to anyone around you.
Dengue outbreak
Recently, our neighbours (Burkina Faso) have been hit by an outbreak of Dengue and unfortunately more or less 2000 individuals have been diagnosed positive. Rumors are that the army of those mosquitos may perhaps take wing to Ghana too. Hence, we should cover all our bases and be prepared to fight those trifling vampires.
A daunting detail about these species of mosquitos is that it’s the female mosquitos that are culprits behind the dengue fever. Yes, at the moment a lot of men must be chuckling with the thought that it’s always the females who are the cause of complications. On the contrary, for the sake of an argument let’s just reach a consensus and accept that females are fierce in any form and that’s a compliment to the females out there!
Female mosquitoes
So, these female mosquitoes feed on the blood for their expansion, because the protein in the blood helps them produce eggs whereas, the male mosquitoes feed on plant nectar.
Female mosquitoes bite predominantly during the day, clearly the reason being, they need their beauty sleep at night. Their life expectancy ranges from 14-21 days and in that lifetime, they can lay nearly 300 eggs, some stamina appallingly for such petite devious creatures! Spotting these mysteriously veiled beasts could be a task but you needn’t be Sherlock Holmes, as their most peculiar physical feature is that they’re black and white stripped. Moreover, as previously mentioned they bite during the day.
The virus of this threatening mosquito is quite similar to the viruses guilty of causing other perilous infections like, zika, chikungunya, yellow fever and west nile infection. Having mentioned that, there’ve been alleged whispers of zika encounter in Nigeria. All the more reason to pull up our socks in defense to these deathly entities.
In contrast to malaria, mosquitoes that gives dengue affects the rural as well as urban regions. Yeah, they seem to have an extensive coverage! They’re unquestionably a worldwide liability affecting 390 million annually according to WHO. The areas of the globe most severely doomed by dengue mosquitos are: Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Southern China, Taiwan, Pacific islands, Caribbean, Mexico, Africa, Central and South America.
Break-bone fever
Dengue is also known as break-bone fever for a reason, because it makes you so feeble and causes such intense muscle and joint aches as if your bones are breaking into pieces. Furthermore, there are three variations in the intensity of dengue infection that ranges from mild fever followed by dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), which may headway to dengue shock syndrome (DSS).
It does seem quite traumatic and it could be but there is a silver lining behind this dark cloud of horror. The thin yet existent silver lining is that as long as you’re able to get hold of the infection in its early phase and are able to give your body proper medical attention, it hardly ever causes death. Hopefully that was tad bit comforting.
Dengue can’t be transferred from one person to other but only by the bite of an Aedes mosquito infected with a dengue virus (yes, they just need a mouthful of our blood). Quite like the bite of a Dracula! Sigh, thankfully Halloween is far gone, or is it? As long as these bloodsuckers are around to make our lives horrific.
Symptoms
Those who have weak immunity and those who have had dengue before are at a greater threat of getting dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF). Dengue fever certainly conceals itself well with flu-like symptoms and can make your life dreadful up to 15 days until it fades with proper care. A lot of younger children and the lucky ones who’ve never had dengue will most likely get milder infection when bitten by one of the Aedes mosquito.
Milder infection will show symptoms such as high fever, headache, eye pain, severe joint and muscle pain, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, skin rash, mild bleeding from nose or gums and when you start bruising like a peach.
The serious cases of mild infection develop into dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) harsh symptoms precisely high fever, damage to lymph nodes and blood vessels, bleeding from nose and gums, liver enlargement, decline in platelets, blood spots in stool and heart failure. These symptoms may worsen to cause dengue shock syndrome (DSS) and eventually leading to massive bleeding, shock and then death.
No treatment
There’s no specific treatment or vaccine for this troublesome infection nonetheless, do consult your doctor to help with the care as the diagnosis is confirmed with a blood test and the sample should be triple packaged to avoid contamination.
The most you can do is to take pain relievers with acetaminophen, codeine, and myalgia. Avoid medicines like aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen etc. to aggravate bleeding. There was a vaccine registered in the late 2015 and early 2016 by Sanofi Pasteur called Dengvaxia for ages 9-45 in endemic areas.
There’re certain measures you can take to save yourself from the bite of this mosquito; wear shoes, socks, long pants and long sleeved shirts, use mosquito repellents/coils, avoid collection of water in the house or outside as it aids in the breeding of mosquitos, keep windows closed, use mosquiteo nets and stay indoors during the day. We almost forget to take care of our bodies but we must remember that it’s the only place we live in, hence it deserves all our attention and paramount care. Remember, good health is the greatest gift and a reflection of your happiness.