So much in the radio and television media, the population has heard of dengue. Nevertheless, so it seems that such information have had little or no effect as far as positive results. On the contrary, the new cases of dengue continue appearing day with day. In which it goes of the year, in Perez Zeledón 93 cases of the disease have been reported, in the Hospital Clínica Labrador we have detected 14 new cases of the disease (15%), what means a considerable number of patients and ill potentials that can fall under the claws of this disease. So why is there no interest in the part of the people in correcting the problem?

   Probably the information that has arrived to the communities has not been absolutely clear. For that reason, it is important to clarify some basic aspects of this public health problem.
   
   Dengue is a febrile disease (that is, that it is accompanied by fever) produced by virus that have 4 different types (all denominated arbovirus) and which are transmitted only and exclusively by means of the puncture of a mosquito, called Aedes call aegypti. When a mosquito infected by the virus bites a healthy person, this virus appears approximately in the blood of that person until the fifth or sixth day. Approximately 2 days before the beginning of the first symptoms and during 4 or 5 more days (period during which the person presents/displays the fever), those virus detects itself in the blood, and that turns that person in somebody able to infect another mosquito. That way, the transmission is relatively easy, particularly in places where the amounts of mosquitoes are abundant. When a mosquito bites an infected person (this person is called to him “reservoir”), the virus is incubated in the insect during a period of 2 to 15 days. As of that moment and while it lives, that mosquito becomes a transmitter of the disease for the humans. A person begins with the symptoms 2 to 15 days after being bitten. A female of Aedes aegypti can live until by 30 days, during which it can bite and infect up to dozens of people and lay hundreds of eggs to reproduce.
   
   Dengue is more frequent in the months of summer, at the end of August and October, for being this the time at which a rise in the amount of transmitting mosquitoes exists. The women and the children usually are affected, because they spend more time in their homes; the mosquito are “homemade” insects, that usually live in the vicinity of the houses, where sites exist that accumulate clean waters.
   
   
   So why is it so bad to have dengue? Many people simply associate this disease with a “quiebra huesos”, that is, fever with strong pains in the joints and extremities. The disease usually begins with nasal secretion and irritation of eyes (similar to a conjunctivitis), subsequent to which initiates the fever (that little by little increases), severe headache, muscular pains, pains in the joints, pain behind the eyes and sometimes a break in the skin, that looks like the allergic reactions. In some extreme cases the blood plaque can descend drastically (cells which are in charge partly of the processes of the coagulation), reason why people with this problem present/display bruises in the skin, without apparent cause. These symptoms usually are only fought with analgesic and antipyretics (medicines against the fever), such as acetaminophen, avoiding the use of other medicines, specially the injections. Up to here, everything seems very easy to bear.
   
   The serious problem happens when a person is infected first by one of the 4 types of virus of dengue and later he is affected by a different virus. It is here where the possibilities increase that the person presents/displays a hemorrhagic symptoms of dengue, situation that can be mortal, still with an appropriate treatment. A specific treatment against the virus does not exist. All the treatment that is used is basically of the symptoms that the person present, reason why in case of a hemorrhagic episode of dengue can reach up to 50% chance of mortality.
   
   
   It is here where the citizen participation in the prevention of this disease becomes fundamental. It is essential to maintain the houses, uncultivated lots, buildings of any type, etc., free of deposits of the transmitting mosquito. The existence of containers that can store clean water of any type must be avoided: rims, egg rinds, flower base, empty bottles and tins, covers of bottles… in short, any thing able to contain water (larvae of the mosquito have been found in the empty medicine’s plastic packing).
   
   When one suspects that a person has dengue, the doctor usually calls for an examination call hemogram, in which they quantify parquets and other cells that are indicators for the professional, but they are not a diagnose. The definitive diagnosis it is done by means of determent the specific antibodies for the virus of dengue in blood. This examination of blood needs to be done between the sixth and tenth day after the first symptoms of fever. In Laboratory ROLMO (located in the facilities of Hospital Clínica Labrador) the results of this study can be obtained in a day or less and its cost is of only ¢10.000.
   
   If it suspects that you or somebody of your family it is suffering of this disease, you can visit our hospital, where qualified doctors will be able to orient you and render attention and council projected at this matter.
   
   And remember:
   
   THE PREVENTION OF DENGUE IS A RESPONSIBILITY OF ALL
   
   Dr. Fernando Guevara Rojas
   General Director
   Hospital Clínica Labrador