The principal symptoms of dengue

The symptoms for dengue fever has changed from the normal fever, rash, body ache and headache to nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.

Deputy Director-General of Health Datuk Seri Dr Jeyaindran Sinnadurai said,"We have had cases where patients died after suffering from nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. They came in when their condition worsened as private clinics were treating them for food poisoning,"

Dr Jeyaindran add that doctors, both in public and private hospitals and clinics should now lookout for these symptoms together with other symptoms which also include checking their blood pressure and pulse.

Dr Jeyaindran also advised doctors to not just focus on platelet count for dengue diagnosis but also do a haematocriti, also known as packed cell volume (PCV) or erythrocyte volume fraction (EVF), is the volume percentage (%) of red blood cells in blood.

"It is normally 45% for men and 40% for women. It is considered an integral part of a person's complete blood count results, along with haemoglobin concentration, white blood cell count, and platelet count," he added.

The principal symptoms of dengue are

1. High fever and at least two of the following: 
2. Severe headache
3. Severe eye pain (behind eyes)
4. Joint pain
5. Muscle and/or bone pain
6. Rash 
7. Mild bleeding manifestation (e.g., nose or gum bleed, petechiae, or easy bruising)
8. Low white cell count

Anyone with the following warning signs should go IMMEDIATELY to an emergency room: -

• Nausea
• Diarrhoea
• Severe abdominal pain or persistent vomiting
• Red spots or patches on the skin
• Bleeding from nose or gums
• Vomiting blood
• Black, tarry stools (faeces, excrement)
• Drowsiness or irritability
• Pale, cold, or clammy skin 
• Difficulty breathing

Public cooperation was important to handle the dengue crisis which otherwise would lead to an epidemic with many dying.

In the third week of this year, there were 8,502 dengue cases reported nationwide, an increase of 65% as compared to 5,141 cases during the same period last year.

There were also 20 deaths as compared to seven during the same period in 2014. The increase in deaths have also been attributed to change in dengue serotype shift from DEN 2 to DEN 1.