Complications Associated with Dengue

Javier Zuniga

Regional Health Manager for the Western Health Region, Doctor Javier Zuniga says that there are many complications associated with dengue. He advises that persons, who detect symptoms of dengue at an early stage, should seek medical attention because any severe case can lead to hypovolemic shock and eventually death. Doctor Zuniga stresses that there are dengue cases that appear with or without symptoms. Here’s how he explains it:

Dr. Javier Zuniga, Regional Health Manager, Western Health Region

“Not because you have only fever, means that you will be okay. This is just a sign to say I have an illness. But dengue, we’ve seen that can progress very rapidly into severe dengue. So we have dengue without warning signs, with warning signs and then severe dengue. And when we speak about severe dengue it’s when people start having hemo-dynamic de-compensation, so they are losing volume from the blood. So for example, if they start bleeding from different areas of the body: could be from the mucosas, the eyes, the mouth, the nose, the vagina from some females or even the gastro-intestinal system. So these signs are important. If bleeding occurs anywhere and you have fever, run to the hospital okay because that can be a severe form of dengue. And it leads them to hypovolemic shock very rapidly and that is what kills the patient.”