Watch Out From Dengue Fever

I saw my whatsapp group, there was a news. A college student passed away just because of the dengue fever. I was really sad and wondering, how come dengue fever is able to take someone's life? Then, this video made me understand. 

I got this video from youtube, then I did a little of modification. Here is the link for the original video. I made the explanation for the video below, so please read the explanation while you watch the video. 

The female mosquito, Aedes aegypti, brings the dengue virus toward the human body that causes dengue fever through its needle. The small green circle is the dengue virus, while the big white circle is the immune cell. The immune cell can detect and absorb the dengue virus as the protection mechanism. Then, it takes the dengue virus to the lymphatic system. One of the function of the lymphatic system is to help rid the virus out of the body. But, because of the super strong dengue virus, the lymphatic system couldn't work as expected, even the dengue virus becomes stronger by doing some replication, they produce more and more viruses. The viruses spread to the blood vessel. When there are so many viruses, the condition is called viremia. If this condition doesn't stop, it can make the blood vessel to leak and allow the blood to go out from the blood vessel. 

Here is the picture if there is a leakage in the blood vessel.

[Picture source: Compilation from image.google.com]

You can see so many red spots which are the accumulation of the blood that is out of the blood vessel. This condition tends to make the patient get a shock. Shock is the common life-threatening condition because of running out of the blood so all of the organs can not work properly. One of the examples is the respiratory system fails to work, the patient stops breathing. That's why the dengue fever is able to take someone's life. 

Now, we are in the rainy season and in the tropical country, when and where the dengue fever mostly occurs. You don't want to end your life just because of the dengue fever, right? What can you do? Of course, there is a way to avoid it which is by doing prevention.

Everybody now that doing prevention is far better than doing treatment. So in this post, I would like to invite you all to prevent your own self from getting infected by the dengue virus and after reading my post I hope you will be able to apply all of them in your daily life. There are 3 ways for the prevention which are knowing the symptoms, your environment, and the vaccine. 

Firstly, knowing the symptoms. The earlier you know the symptoms the better. The early symptoms of the dengue fever are having headache and fever. It is such not a specific symptom, right? It may be confused with other diseases like flu or typhoid. It's okay to be confused so you just need to make sure it to the doctor. The doctor will ask you to get laboratory examination, the officer will take your blood sample, then the doctor will confirm it whether you get infected or not. It's better to detect the infection earlier because you will have the possibility to be cured higher. 

Of course, there are specific symptoms of the dengue fever which are rash, itching, fainted, mouth and nose bleeding. But, it will appear in the worsening condition. If you find someone in those conditions, please bring him/her immediately because his/her life is being threatened. I have ever been in that condition, I was fainted and unconscious, my parent took me immediately to the hospital. Thanks to God, I was able to be saved. I got hospitalized for about 1 month.

Secondly, knowing your environment. You have known from the previous video that the one that is bringing the dengue virus is the mosquito. So, by preventing the mosquito growth, it will prevent our own self from getting infected by the virus. How can we prevent the mosquito growth? By knowing the mosquito life cycle. Look at the picture below.

[Picture source: cdc.gov]

The life cycle of the mosquito, in this case, the life cycle of the Aedes aegypti, starts from the egg, then by the suitable environment when there is water, the eggs can transform into larvae. Then the larvae continue to grow to be pupae. The last, the pupae will transform into the adult mosquito. This adult mosquito will be ready to bite the human body. The whole documentation of this mosquito life cycle can be watched in this video below.

I got the video from youtube and I did a little modification. Here is the  link for the original video. 

After knowing its life cycle we can conclude that for the mosquito to grow, they require water so by preventing water from the mosquito growth, indirectly we prevent our own self from getting infected. That's why our government always invite all the resident to throw away every container that contains water. Besides that, our government also invite us to apply the mosquito repellent, wear long bright clothing, and use the mosquito net. 

[Picture Source: Compilation from image.google.com]

Thirdly, knowing the vaccine. Have you ever heard about the vaccine for dengue virus? You may be more familiar to the vaccine for the common disease like tetanus and polio. It's okay because it's true that you are not familiar with dengue vaccine since it has been approved by Indonesian Food and Drug Monitoring agency this October 2016. It hasn't been over 1 year yet distributed in Indonesia. It's such a good news, right? After we were craving for the vaccine for the dengue virus for so many years, now we have had the vaccine. The vaccine name is Dengvaxia which is invented by Sanofi. 

[Picture source: compilation from image.google.com]

Sanofi is one of the biggest pharmaceutical industry in the world. They have been doing the research for about 20 years. Not only in Indonesia, Dengvaxia also has been approved in other 11 countries that need it the most. So, what are you waiting for? Get vaccinated to decrease the risk of getting infected. 

In conclusion, there are 3 ways to prevent your own self from getting infected by the dengue virus by (1) knowing the symptoms, the earlier you know it, the better, (2) knowing your environment, throw away every container that contain water and use protection to protect your body from getting bitten by the mosquito, (3) knowing the vaccine, get vaccinated to lower the risk of getting infected. 

The longer you live, the more contribution you can do to each other so you can end your life in the best way. That's all, watch out from dengue fever, be healthy, and thanks for visiting!