Dengue fever is one of the common infectious diseases and there is a vaccine to prevent it. If there is no timely treatment, it will cause dangerous complications that are harmful to human health. Normally, dengue fever can affect adults and children with quite similar symptoms. So what are the symptoms of dengue fever in adults? Let’s learn in detail about dengue fever through the article below!
What does dengue fever look like in adults?
Dengue fever in adults adults is an acute infectious disease caused by dengue virus. This disease is caused by the bite of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes. Patients infected with the virus can spread it to healthy people through bites.
Dengue fever often appears in tropical countries. In Vietnam, dengue fever is common, both in urban and rural areas. The disease often occurs year-round and becomes the strongest epidemic in the rainy season, especially in July, August, September and October.
Dengue fever symptoms in adults
According to the World Health Organization, dengue fever symptoms in adults correspond to each stage of the disease. After the incubation period, people with dengue fever will begin to experience symptoms such as sudden high fever for 2-7 days and are accompanied by different symptoms such as:
- Feeling of headache, nausea and loss of appetite;
- A rash and skin congestion appear;
- Red spots appear under the skin, or even nosebleeds or tooth roots;
- Feeling a feeling of muscle pain, joint pain and pain in the eye sockets.
Moreover, high fever is accompanied by symptoms of dengue fever with mild symptoms but still a feeling of loss of strength, discomfort, and the body falls into a state of fatigue. Therefore, patients need to have a regime of rest and treatment to quickly reduce symptoms and restore health.
Stages of dengue fever in adults that need attention
When you have dengue fever, the patient must go through the stages of dengue fever, including 3 stages: Fever stage – Danger stage – recovery stage.
Fever stage
After an incubation period of 4-7 days, the patient begins to enter the fever stage. At this time, the patient may have a sudden high fever and a high temperature of about 39 – 40 degrees Celsius. Taking fever-reducing drugs shows no signs of improvement. In addition, it also comes with accompanying signs such as: fatigue, sore throat, epigastric pain, diarrhea, etc.
Dangerous phase
This phase usually occurs after 3 – 7 days after the first few days. first fever. At this time, the patient may have a reduced or still high fever, secondary infections appear with signs such as thrombocytopenia and hemoconcentration. If a patient with dengue fever is in a dangerous stage, symptoms may appear such as:
- Effusion in the lungs, chest pain when changing positions such as tightness, heaviness, difficulty breathing.
- Fluid in the peritoneum but feeling of bloating, rapidly enlarging abdomen;
- Pain under the ribs or epigastric area due to enlarged liver, lethargy, cold hands and feet, cold and damp skin all over the body;
- Hemorrhage under the skin: formation of hemorrhagic spots or patches, often appearing on the front of the legs, the inside of the arms, thighs or abdominal ribs;
- Gastrointestinal hemorrhage, lung and brain hemorrhage: vomiting blood, urinating blood, coughing up blood or menorrhagia, etc.
With severe complications that patients face at dangerous stages such as myocarditis, hepatitis, encephalitis, and heart failure. kidneys, etc. At this stage, patients with dengue fever need to be carefully cared for and carefully monitored for disease symptoms. If the patient shows signs of worsening, it is necessary to notify the doctor for timely emergency treatment.
Recovery phase
After the patient passes the recovery phase, the patient will have no fever and recover health, with stable blood pressure. In particular, the indicators returned to normal. Furthermore, the patient’s family members need to take careful and proper care. However, do not be negligent when there are signs of unusual symptoms even though the patient is recovering. Without careful care, the patient is still at risk of pulmonary edema and heart failure.
How How to promptly detect dengue fever?
In addition to understanding the symptoms of dengue fever in adults, early diagnosis and detection will play an important role as well as timely treatment, avoiding danger to life.
In particular, with equipment in Vietnam, conditions are favorable for midges to develop and reproduce, especially in the summer. In the early stages of the disease, symptoms appear that are easily confused with the flu. To be safe, you need to test with serum to find viral antigens. Ways to do this include:
- Rapid test: To find reactions to Dengue NS1 antigen or use ELISA method to find IgM or IgG antibodies.
- PCR test to isolate viruses: With results available in about 72 hours with high accuracy and detecting the correct strain of virus causing the disease. This is important in cases where the disease develops abnormally and is difficult to diagnose.
However, there are many people who arbitrarily diagnose the disease and buy medicine from outside. This not only causes the condition not to be resolved, but also causes complications or the virus’s effects to develop more strongly, making treatment more difficult. Furthermore, many deaths have been recorded from dengue fever.
How to prevent dengue fever
Dengue fever is an infectious disease from one person to another through an intermediary (mosquitoes). Therefore, to prevent dengue fever in adults, it is necessary to kill the host (mosquito) that transmits the disease:
- Cover water containers in the house to prevent mosquitoes from being able to lay eggs;
- Kill larvae and larvae by dropping fish into water containers, or turning over containers that do not contain water, and changing water for flower vases. You can use salt/oil/chemicals to kill larvae in the bowl in front of the cupboard;
- Remove household waste and natural water cavities to prevent mosquitoes from laying eggs such as pieces of wood, broken coconuts, etc.car covers,..
- Sleep with a mosquito net and wear long-sleeved shirts to prevent mosquito bites even during the day;
- When you have a sudden, prolonged high fever, you need to go to a medical facility for examination and diagnosis. Absolutely do not self-treat at home.
Above is all information about dengue fever symptoms in adults. Hope this article will provide you with the necessary information. If you have any questions, please contact us via Fanpage or come directly to the dentist for thorough and detailed advice.
Kim Dung
