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Dengue – Causes, Signs and Symptoms, Risk factors.

Dengue is transmitted by the bite of an Aedes mosquito infected with any one of the four dengue viruses. Dengue fever can occur to people of all ages but it mostly affects children under the age of 15 years, but can occur in all age groups. It is also known as breakdown fever.

It is found mostly during and shortly after the rainy season in tropical and subtropical areas of Africa, Southeast Asia and China, India, Middle East, Caribbean and Central and South America, Australia and the South and Central Pacific. The dengue virus is transmitted to its host during probing and blood feeding.

Causes of Dengue Fever

- It is caused by one of four closely related virus serotypes (DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, and DEN-4), of the genus Flavivirus.
- Increase in non-biodegradable plastic packaging and discarded tires.
- Increased jet air travel is helping people infected with dengue viruses to move easily from city to city.
- Lack of effective methods to control epidemics.
- Lack of effective mosquito control efforts.
- Poor Public health systems.
- Rapid growth or Overcrowding of cities in tropical countries.
- Urban decay, and substandard sanitation, allowing more mosquitoes to live closer to more people.

Signs and Symptoms of Dengue

After the mosquito carrying the virus has bitten a person the symptoms generally starts within 5 to 8 days. The acute phase of illness can last for 1 week followed by a 1 to 2 week period of recovery period.
- Mild fever, to incapacitating high fever upto 105 degrees.
- Rashes
- Headache
- Redness and pain in eyes
- Joint and muscle pain
- Nausea and vomiting
- Loss of appetite
- Change in taste
- Swollen lymph nodes

Who is at a high risk of having dengue?

- Anyone who is bitten by an infected mosquito can get Dengue fever.
- Risk factors for Dengue hemorrhagic fever include a person’s age and immune status.
- It also depends on type of infecting virus.

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Is there a wrong time to eat ?

For long, people have been told that you should eat properly, eat at correct intervals, give enough time between dinner and when you go to sleep, and other such health tips. A lot of them get dis-regarded like many other health tips. However, research is showing that the time periods when you eat can have an effect on obesity / the tendency to put on weight. Such research would be very relevant to people who work hours where their food timings are unbalanced, such as people who get off a late shift, and then have to compress their dinner and sleep timings (link to article):

Late-night snackers are more likely to gain weight, research suggests. A team from Northwestern University, Illinois, found that when you eat, not just how you eat, could make a big difference. Scientists found that when mice ate at unusual hours, they put on twice as much weight, despite exercising and eating as much as others.
The findings may have implications for people worried about their weight.
“How or why a person gains weight is very complicated, but it is clearly not just calories in and calories out,” said Fred Turek, from the Northwestern’s Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology, where the research took place. The scientists now hope they can find out more about how the process works. It is thought that sleep, hormones and body temperature all play a part in how we gain weight.

Given that the study was carried out on mice (even though mice are the standard test bed for such research), it would take more research to see the applicability of such a study on humans. However, overall, eating on a regular pattern has always been claimed to be beneficial to health.

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