What happens to Blood Platelets in Dengue Fever? 

Dengue fever is a disease that is spread by the Aedes Egypti mosquito through its bite. This type of disease is spread over most of the tropical areas around the world and is a type of arthropod-borne virus. After the person is bit the virus starts to travel through the glands in your body and then it begins to multiply. At this point it can enter your blood stream. It is not a contagious disease and cannot be passed from person to person. You have to be bitten and infected by that particular mosquito.

This fever is common in China, the Indian subcontinent, Africa, Central and South America, Southeast Asia, Australia, Central and South Pacific, and the Caribbean islands. It is most prominent during or shortly after the rainy season in these areas.

Symptoms

When you contact this disease, you will usually start with a sudden high fever that can range from one hundred four to one hundred five degrees. During the early part of the infection you may see a flat red rash appearing all over most of your body. Later there will be a second rash that resembles the measles that could appear. You may also have an increase d sensitivity on your skin. There are also other symptoms that you may have, which include:

• Headache
• Joint pains
• Muscle pain
• Lymph node swelling
• Feeling nauseated
• Loss of your appetite

There are also more serious cases of this condition which include dengue shock syndrome (DSS) or dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF). If you have had dengue fever, you are protected for around a year by antibodies that prevent it from happening negative pregnancy test late period again.

Dengue Platelet Count

The dengue fever virus's main effect is on your platelet production. In a healthy body, the platelet in your body will last for five to ten days, and when it is necessary, your body will replenishes them. When you get dengue fever, the virus will destroy your body's capacity to produce new platelets when it is time to replenish them.

Normally a person will have a platelet count that varies from one hundred fifty to two hundred fifty thousand per cubic millimeters of blood. When a person has this virus, their dengue platelet count starts to fall. It is alarming if the count is below one hundred thousand per cubic millimeters of blood but if below fifty thousand per cubic millimeters of blood it can be fatal. In addition, when the platelet count starts to fall, it prevents blood clots from forming, which can lead to hemorrhaging. This can lead to both external and internal bleeding. Once this bleeding starts it is almost irrecoverable.

How is it Diagnosed and Treated

This condition is usually confirmed by a blood test using two testing methods. One method it is detected by the anti-dengue bodies in your blood, and the other method is by using a culture to detect it.

The treatment for dengue fever focuses on the medication that is currently sued to reduce pain and lower the fever. Two other things that you need to do to ensure that you get better are getting plenty of bed rest and drinking a lot of fluids. If it is an extreme case, you may need blood transfusions. If you have dengue shock syndrome you will have to have oxygen. Almost all patients that develop dengue fever completely recover.

Things you can do to help Prevent Dengue Fever

There is no vaccination to prevent anyone from getting dengue fever so you need to make sure that you are taking precautions when you travel to an area where you know that dengue fever can happen. Here are some preparation tips:

• Use mosquito repellents
• When you are outdoors you should tuck your pants into your socks and wearing long sleeved shirts.
• Try to avoid areas that are extremely populated
• If the sleeping area is not air conditioned or is not screened, you should sleep with bed nets on.
• Make sure that the areas that surround where you are living or staying is clean.
• You also need to check to make sure that there is no stagnant water nearby.