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.... Guest Editorial

05th August 2010
Dengue Fever Campaign

The Ministry of Health will today launch its Dengue Fever awareness campaign at the Mental and Wellness Center where it will outline its plan to tackle the disease as Saint Lucians are called on to take preventative measures so as not to spread the disease.
Saint Lucia has had cases of dengue fever this year but not the life threatening one called dengue hemorrhagic fever. The last Saint Lucian to have died from dengue hemorrhagic fever was several years ago, according to someone from the Ministry of Health.
The dengue fever season coincides with the rainy season here which runs from June – November.
Dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) are acute febrile diseases which occur in the tropics and can be life-threatening. They are caused by four closely related virus serotypes of the genus Flavivirus, known as break bone fever, since it can be extremely painful. It occurs widely in the tropics.
Dengue is transmitted to humans by the Aedes gegypti or more rarely the Aedes albopictus mosquito, both of which feed exclusively during daylight hours.
 
 

Here are the signs and symptoms of the disease as described by Wikipedia Encyclopedia:
The disease manifests as fever of sudden onset associated with headache, muscle and joint pains, distinctive retro-orbital pain, and rash. The classic dengue rash is a generalised maculopapular rash with islands of sparing. A hemorrhagic rash of characteristically bright red pinpoint spots, known as petechiae can occur later during the illness and is associated with thrombocytopenia. It usually appears first on the lower limbs and the chest; in some patients, it spreads to cover most of the body. There may also be severe retro-orbital pain, (a pain from behind the eyes that is distinctive to Dengue infections), and gastritis with some combination of associated abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting coffee-grounds-like congealed blood, or diarrhea.
Some cases develop much milder symptoms which can be misdiagnosed as influenza or other viral infection when no rash or retro-orbital pain is present.
If any case, we urge our readers to be vigilant during the coming months, at least until we get the “ all clean” from our Health Authorities .(M.G.)

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