The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s Communicable Disease Control Division reported yesterday that the number of dengue fever cases in the Thai capital is up nearly 20 percent compared to the same period in 2015.

Image/CDC
Image/CDC

During the first five months of 2016, Bangkok has seen 3,630 dengue fever cases. This accounts for about one fifth of Thailand’s total 18,044. Health officials say the group hit hardest by the dengue surge is children ages 10-14 years.

Officials do say that there have been no dengue-related fatalities in Bangkok, while nationally, Thailand has seen 15 deaths to date.

Rayong, Maehongsorn, Phuket and Trad provinces round out the top 5 most heavily affected areas.

Dengue is a viral infection transmitted by the bite of an infected mosquito. There are four closely related but antigenically different serotypes of the virus that can cause dengue (DEN1, DEN 2, DEN 3, DEN 4).

Dengue has a wide spectrum of infection outcome (asymptomatic to symptomatic). Symptomatic illness can vary from dengue fever (DF) to the more serious dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF).

  • Dengue Fever (DF) – marked by an onset of sudden high fever, severe headache, pain behind the eyes, and pain in muscles and joints. Some may also have a rash and varying degree of bleeding from various parts of the body (including nose, mouth and gums or skin bruising).
  • Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever (DHF) – is a more severe form, seen only in a small proportion of those infected. DHF is a stereotypic illness characterized by 3 phases; febrile phase with high continuous fever usually lasting for less than 7 days; critical phase (plasma leaking) lasting 1-2 days usually apparent when fever comes down, leading to shock if not detected and treated early; convalescence phase lasting 2-5 days with improvement of appetite, bradycardia (slow heart rate), convalescent rash (white patches in red background), often accompanied by generalized itching (more intense in palms and soles), and diuresis (increase urine output).

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