Dengue

Introduction

Despite being a century-old infectious disease in Malaysia,dengue fever continues to be an important public health problem. Aedes mosquito are important vectors of viral diseases. They are recognized as the greatest menace as they are responsible for the transmission of dengue worldwide. These mosquito continue to proliferate in our environment and affect the quality of life of each individual as they contribute to the morbidities and mortalities reported in both natural and urban areas.

The most commonly Aedes mosquito is Aedes aegypti and less commonly Aedes albopictus mosquito. Aedes aegypti is uniquely adapted to living in and around human habitations, where it lays eggs in artificial containers, like pet water bowls,vases,and discarded plastic trash.Female mosquito acquire DENV by biting viremic humans and become infective after an extrinsic incubation of 8-12 days. The infected mosquito can then transmit DENV for the rest of its life. Less common modes of DENV transmission include through exposure to DENV-infected blood,organs,or other tissues via blood transfusion,solid organ or bone marrow transplantation and nosocomial injury. DENV can be vertically transmitted from an infected woman to her fetus in utero or to the infant at parturition.

Dengue can be classified into dengue and severe dengue. Children and cases with secondary infections are greater risk of suffering from severe dengue. Most of the cases of severe disease are related to plasma leakage and shock. The pathogenesis of plasma leakage is not clear, but the antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) of infection has been hypothesized as a mechanism to explain severe dengue in the course of secondary infection and in infants with primary infections.

A probable case of dengue is defined as fever of 2-7 days duration in an individual in an endemic area with any two clinical manifestations, namely, nausea or vomiting,rash,aches and pains,tourniquet test positive,leucopenia and any warning...