Severe dengue fever: A big risk from mistaking for a small thing
According to Dr. Huynh Minh Truc - Director of the Center for Disease Control of Can Tho City, the number of severe dengue fever cases is increasing in both children and adults, showing that the virus is still circulating strongly in the community.
Children are more likely to shock due to weak walls, the most serious complication of which is death shock is about 20-25%, usually occurring on the 4-5th day of the disease. In adults, the disease rarely progresses to shock complications, but bleeding is often more severe, especially gastrointestinal bleeding, which is prolonged and easily fatal.
Dr. Nguyen Minh Tien - Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Children's Hospital warned that many people are subjective and mistaken for dengue fever with flu, self-treating at home. When abdominal pain, vomiting, bleeding, struggling appeared, the patient was at risk of becoming more severe with a deep drop plateau, organial hemorrhage, multiple organ failure, making emergency care difficult.
Devolutionary dengue fever can cause healthy people to fall into critical condition in the blink of an eye, Dr. Minh Tien emphasized.
Dr. Huynh Thi Kim Yen - Head of the Western Provinces Infectious Diseases Association; former Head of the Department of Infectious Diseases, Lecturer at Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy, noted that reinfection is entirely possible. A person can get dengue fever for the second, third, or even fourth time in their life.
Proactive disease prevention in the community is the first line
Dr. CKII Huynh Minh Truc said that epidemic control needs to be synchronous, families and communities should proactively prevent mosquitoes and eliminate breeding grounds; at the same time, medical facilities should closely monitor and detect cases early for timely treatment.
Only then will the number of severe cases and deaths decrease, public health will be protected and medical pressure will be reduced, Dr. CKII Huynh Minh Truc emphasized.
Dr. Nguyen Minh Tien emphasized that there is currently no specific treatment and the disease is progressing rapidly. People need to recognize early signs such as severe headache, pain after pitting, muscle pain, joint pain, rash, high fever >39°C from 2-7 days and warning signs such as struggling, fatigue, severe abdominal pain, continuous vomiting. When you have these signs, you must go to a medical facility immediately, do not self-treat at home.
Dr. Huynh Thi Kim Yen recommends integrated disease prevention measures: kill bedbugs with sticks, remove water containers, wear long-sleeved clothes, apply mosquito repellent, sleep all day and night. Vaccination is also an effective disease prevention measure that people can apply.
