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wiki: Dengue fever
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Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms typically begin three to fourteen days after infection. This may include a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash.

Remember that it's a self limiting condition, after five to seven days of very high fever it all goes away, almost by itself.

Following are points to keep in mind.

1/ control the fever with Dolo, DO NOT use Brufin, IMPORTANT as Ibuprofen can cause internal bleeding.

2/ no anti biotic, it's been confirmed that they have zero impact.

3/ keep patient very well hydrated, this is key. Sure sign of good hydration is when patient passes almost clear urine multiple times a day. If hospitalized the drip takes care of that.

4/ no brushing teeth or even forced gargling, with reduced platelets only concern is bleeding.

5/ Check the skin for any below the skin rashes, particularly in the chest/abdomen and back. This is rare and it's a good sign if you do not see any.

6/ Platelet can drop steadily and by itself is not an issue. In my son's case it came down to 13,000 we still did not do anything except drip and managing temp.

When it starts to rise you will happy to know it shoots up faster than it dropped.

7/ Make a mixture of a decoction of papaya leaf extract, administer twice a day, the jury is still out on this, but I have also read up on medical tests done, it does help.

This does make the motion green in color do not panic, no one told us and I read it as liver damage till it occurred to me after a few hours of turmoil that it was the damm leaves.

Despite my son being weak we did have a good laugh at 3 am in the hospital.

As soon as you see motions becoming more and more solid you are on the road to recovery.

Watch the stools color and report to doctor.

8/ Give the patient very easy to digest food, during a bad attack the liver and gal bladder does function below par, again NOTHING TO WORRY about, inside 15 days after fever goes all get repaired by itself.

9/ When patient visits toilet etc due to fever and weakness there is a possibility of giddiness so at all times some one should be present.

10/ If you give juice ensure its home made; boil drinking water thoroughly.

The patient is a live carrier of the virus for about 7 days, so ensure mosquito protection to stop the spread to others,

Best of luck, in a very short time it will all be well and you can laugh about it.

Great time to bond, no jokes it did happen when my son and I spent a few days in hospital.

KVC, 6th Oct 2017