What is the current situation in Cambodia for dengue?
Posted on October 8th, 2009 in Health News
What is the current situation in Cambodia for dengue?
In 2009, dengue was relatively active in Cambodia, compared with previous years. There are currently less than 10,000 cases clinically suspected. The Pasteur Institute has received 50% of requests for analysis of less than last year and three times less than in 2007. This is great news for the country because many lives will be spared this year as dengue fever rages in neighboring Vietnam.
When is the most conducive to this disease?
Dengue spreads mostly during the rainy season, which is in Cambodia for the period from June to November. There are only rare cases of transmission during the dry season.
How is it transmitted?
Dengue is a viral disease transmitted by a mosquito (Aedes aegypti) bites during the day and lives nearby dwellings. The female Aedes lays its eggs in artificial containers created by man (jars used to stockpile water, used tires, plastic bags, coconut empty sub-pots for plants, branch axils of banana, etc. .).
What are the symptoms? Is it fatal?
It is estimated that many cases of dengue fever are asymptomatic or so mild they go unnoticed. But it is very difficult to estimate precisely the number. In classic form, dengue is manifested by high fever, headaches (often located behind the eyes), body aches, fatigue, sometimes nausea and vomiting accompanying malaise. The skin may become covered in places by small red dots (called petechiae) that do not disappear when pressed (unlike the eruptions that occur in the majority of childhood eruptive diseases).
Sometimes bleeding make their appearance. These can be mild (bleeding gums, nose, skin) or more severe (gastrointestinal bleeding, for example). This is called dengue hemorrhagic requiring hospitalization. In severe cases, the patient developed circulatory shock requiring care in intensive care because the prognosis may be involved in Cambodia, these severe forms occur almost exclusively in children.
A jar source of mosquitoes (Photo provided)
How to protect themselves from dengue? Y was there a vaccine?
Currently, there is no available vaccine and effective drug, the only method of control is prevention. That is, individually, to protect themselves from bites by wearing long clothing, use mosquito repellents to disinsect dwellings (taking care to spray in a cool and dark of the house where mosquitoes like to hiding), use of mosquito nets, mosquito traps, etc..
We must also eliminate (in the house and around the house) containers, waste, garbage where mosquitoes can lay eggs. The authorities are trying to promote measures to prevent mosquitoes from laying eggs in the jars (lids, guppy fish-eating larvae, insecticides, etc..) And spraying insecticides when certain areas are particularly affected.
How do we cure dengue?
We heal by itself. He must take medication against fever and drink plenty to avoid dehydration. Il faut absolument interdire l’usage de l’aspirine car ce médicament aggrave les saignements. Paracetamol is the drug of choice, but it must ensure respect dosages. Hospitals complain many cases of paracetamol poisoning because some parents manage their children from adult doses, which is dangerous.
The infusions are justified only in the hemorrhagic form or circulatory shock. Again, parents and some doctors too often yield to the temptation to put on every infusions that can be dangerous if the volumes are infused too abundant. In all cases, avoid self-medication and consult a doctor who will provide medical monitoring. He may prescribe biological tests to confirm the diagnosis (serology specific detection of virus in the blood) and assess the risk of bleeding by dose of platelets (this review does not permit the diagnosis of dengue, but it can be evocative when blood platelets is reduced in a particular clinical and epidemiological).
Who is most at risk?
In countries such as hyper-endemic in Cambodia but also Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, etc.., Dengue affects mostly Aboriginal children. It is also among the children that are the most serious forms of the disease. Adults in endemic countries are rarely sick. Indeed, once infected with four serotypes of dengue, the body develops a sustainable and protective immunity. However, tourists are immunologically “naive” and find themselves in the same position as young children.
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