In recent days, Spanish hospitals have reported an iincrease in dengue cases coming, the majority, from travelers from Cuba, where the Cuban Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) reported last Wednesday the detection of 11,634 reactive cases of dengue in one week.
The data that the Spanish autonomous communities have offered are not yet definitive, since more cases can be counted, but it has been seen that two-thirds of diagnoses positives in our country in summer come from the Caribbean island. However, Catalonia, the Canary Islands, Murcia and Castilla-La Mancha have not yet notified any data.
Dengue is a infectious disease that is spread through the DENV virus, and that can be transmitted by the species mosquito Aedes aegypti, which has developed a rare immunity to insecticides. It can not only transmit dengue, but also yellow fever or Zika.
However, it is not only transmitted by the Aedes mosquito. Most of the cases that have occurred in Spain have been of people who have traveled to places where the disease is endemicbut the autochthonous cases in our country have been due to the tiger mosquitowhich is increasingly present in the autonomous communities, mainly in the Mediterranean, Andalusia, Madrid, Extremadura, the Basque Country and Aragon.
dengue symptoms
Although 80% of people who get the disease have mild symptoms and even asymptomatic, there are cases in which it is complicated and can be serious.
mild symptoms
- Intense headache
- High fever
- Muscle pain
- Joint pain
- Nausea
- vomiting
- Swelling of the lymph nodes
- Skin rash in the form of red dots
the second day of symptom is key, since it determines whether the infection evolves favorably or, on the contrary, worsens.
severe symptoms
- severe abdominal pain
- Vomiting with presence of blood
- Blood in urine and stool
- heavy breathing
- Bleeding from the gums or nose
- Hepatomegaly (enlarged liver)
- Fatigue
Although medicine is evolving, there is no treatment to deal with the disease, just to alleviate the symptoms. If the symptoms get complicated, you should go to the hospital.
Dengue can be prevented. Since 2015 there is a vaccine, dengvaxia. It is approved in 20 countries and can be inoculated by people between the ages of nine and 45. As with the coronavirus, this inoculation does not prevent infection, but rather reduces symptoms.
