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VIRAL SYNDROME
What is a viral syndrome?
A person with a viral syndrome has a combination of symptoms that are common in those with a viral infection. Viral syndrome is a diagnosis that a doctor may use when symptoms suggest a viral illness, but the specific virus has not been identified.
What are the symptoms of a viral syndrome?
Symptoms of a viral syndrome include fever, muscles aches, joint pains, fatigue, and headache. Additional symptoms may include sinus congestion, sore throat, swollen glands, cough, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and a rash.
How does the doctor treat a viral syndrome?
The treatment for a viral syndrome depends on the type of viral infection. General treatment includes rest, plenty of liquids, and acetaminophen or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications for pain and fever.
MALARIA
What is malaria?
Malaria is an infectious disease caused by a parasite, Plasmodium, which infects red blood cells. Malaria is characterized by cycles of chills, fever, pain, and sweating. Malaria is prevalent because of the significant amounts of rainfall and consistent high temperatures; warm, consistent temperatures and high humidity, along with stagnant waters in which their larvae mature, provide mosquitoes with the environment needed for continuous breeding.
What are malaria symptoms and signs?
The symptoms characteristic of malaria include flulike illness with fever, chills, muscle aches, and headache. Some patients develop nausea, vomiting, cough, and diarrhea. Cycles of chills, fever, and sweating that repeat every one, two, or three days are typical. There can sometimes be vomiting, diarrhea, coughing, and yellowing (jaundice) of the skin and whites of the eyes due to destruction of red blood cells and liver cells.
People with severe P. falciparum malaria can develop bleeding problems, shock, liver or kidney failure, central nervous system problems, coma, and can die from the infection or its complications. Cerebral malaria (coma, or altered mental status or seizures) can occur with severe P. falciparum infection. It is lethal if not treated quickly.
What is treatment of Malaria?
Once a diagnosis of malaria is established, the patient should be treated early with a safe and effective antimalarial medicine. Going immediately to a medical facility is probably your best option. But if you’re far from help, then it’s useful to know how to treat malaria. Treatment usually consists of medications that depend on the type of parasite and it’s resistance. People with falciparum malaria may need to be monitored in the intensive care unit of a hospital during the first days of treatment because the disease can cause breathing failure, coma and kidney failure.
How Malaria can be prevented?
1. Prevention requires A, B, C and D.
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2. For optimal prevention of malaria, protection from mosquito bites is essential – even if you’re taking preventive medicines.
Avoid mosquito bites
- Mosquitoes bite particularly at twilight and at night, so you should take most precautions during this time.
- Sleep in rooms that are properly screened with gauze over the windows and doors. There should be no holes in the gauze and no unscreened entry points to the room. Air-conditioned rooms are good, too.
- Spray the room with an insecticide before entering to kill any mosquitoes that have got inside during the day.
- Otherwise, you should use a mosquito net around your bed, impregnated with an insecticide such as pyrethrum (a harmless substance manufactured on the basis of extract of chrysanthemum) or permethrin (the artificial version of the same).
- Long trousers, long-sleeved clothing and socks thick enough to stop the mosquitoes biting will also protect you, and should be worn outside after sunset. But it may be hard to follow such advice in a hot climate. Light colours are less attractive to mosquitoes.
3. Use mosquito repellent cream
Mosquito repellent containing diethyl toluamide (DEET) is recommended as the most effective form of bite-preventive treatment.
It’s important that the manufacturer’s recommendations are not exceeded, particularly when using it on small children.
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DENGUE FEVER
What is dengue fever?
Dengue fever also known as breakbone fever, is an infectious tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles. In a small proportion of cases the disease develops into the life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage, or into dengue shock syndrome, where dangerously low blood pressure occurs.
Dengue is transmitted by several species of mosquito within the Aedes genus, principally A. aegypti. The virus has four different types; infection with one type usually gives lifelong immunity to that type, but only short-term immunity to the others. Subsequent infection with a different type increases the risk of severe complications. As there is no vaccine, prevention is sought by reducing the habitat and the number of mosquitoes and limiting exposure to bites.
How Dengue Fever can be prevented?
There are no approved vaccines for the dengue virus. Prevention thus depends on control of and protection from the bites of the mosquito that transmits it.
The primary method of controlling A. aegypti is by eliminating its habitats. This is done by emptying containers of water or by adding insecticides or biological control agents to these areas, although spraying with organophosphate or pyrethroid insecticides is not thought to be effective. Reducing open collections of water through environmental modification is the preferred method of control, given the concerns of negative health effect from insecticides and greater logistical difficulties with control agents. People can prevent mosquito bites by wearing clothing that fully covers the skin, using mosquito netting while resting, and/or the application of insect repellent (DEET being the most effective).
How Dengue Fever can be managed?
There are no specific treatments for dengue fever. Treatment depends on the symptoms, varying from oral rehydration therapy at home with close follow-up, to hospital admission with administration of intravenous fluids and/or blood transfusion. A decision for hospital admission is typically based on the presence of the "warning signs" listed in the table above, especially in those with preexisting health conditions.
Intravenous hydration is usually only needed for one or two days. The rate of fluid administration is titrated to a urinary output of 0.5–1 mL/kg/hr, stable vital signs and normalization of hematocrit. Invasive medical procedures such as nasogastric intubation, intramuscular injections and arterial punctures are avoided, in view of the bleeding risk. Paracetamol (acetaminophen) is used for fever and discomfort while NSAIDs such as ibuprofen and aspirin are avoided as they might aggravate the risk of bleeding. Blood transfusion is initiated early in patients presenting with unstable vital signs in the face of a decreasing hematocrit, rather than waiting for the hemoglobin concentration to decrease to some predetermined "transfusion trigger" level. Packed red blood cells or whole blood are recommended, while platelets and fresh frozen plasma are usually not.
During the recovery phase intravenous fluids are discontinued to prevent a state of fluid overload. If fluid overload occurs and vital signs are stable, stopping further fluid may be all that is needed. If a person is outside of the critical phase, a loop diuretic such as furosemide may be used to eliminate excess fluid from the circulation.
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