If you or a child in your house is having high body temperature and are down with fever, don't take it lightly. If you ignore it as an insignificant bout of fever that will last for a day or two and then subside, think again! Not all types of feverish conditions are mild and so should not be taken lightly.

At times, it could be dengue infection in your body system due to mosquito bite that is causing the feverish symptoms. Dengue can occur in adults and children alike, but it is milder and less harmful in children than in adults. Mild cases of dengue fever go away in a week.

If you're not sure whether it is a mild instance of fever, malaria, or the highly painful break-bone fever 'dengue', here's how you can find out:

1. Bone Pain: The symptoms of dengue start appearing after 5-8 days from the mosquito's bite. The symptom of dengue that distinguishes itself from other types of mosquito-borne diseases is severe bone pain. The pain is so intense that your bones seem to break from within. The primary symptoms of dengue are leg pain and joint pain.

2. Rashes: Dengue is characterized by transient pink rashes that appear abruptly and disappear quickly. The rashes look similar to that of measles infection.

3. Bleeding: Eyes become red, and gums and nose bleed. Skin bleeding often appears as bruised skin. There is drop in platelet count too. Sometimes, too much bleeding could lead to haemorrhagic shock, which could be fatal too if not treated early on. This is known as DHF (Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever) or DSS (Dengue Shock Syndrome).

4. Body Temperature: Body temperature shoots to as high as 104 F to 105 F, which is dangerous if not brought down early.

5. Heart Rate and Blood Pressure (BP): The dengue-infected person suffers from bradycardia (low heart rate) and subsequently low blood pressure.

6. Eye Ache: Severe headache and eye pain are experienced in dengue.

7. Other Symptoms: Nausea, vomiting, swollen glands, loss of appetite, breathlessness, abdominal pain, sleepiness, sweaty skin, and black stools are some other symptoms of dengue. In severe cases, there could be heart, liver, and lung complications. The liver could enlarge or the circulatory system may become laggard leading to heart problems.

If you live in a dengue-prone area, then you should be quick to visit a doctor in case you develop feverish conditions. Remember that dengue can even lead to death under very severe conditions. So, never take the dengue advice with a pinch of salt.

Dengue fever is certainly treatable, but recovery takes a long course and so is accompanied by depression and fatigue. Secondary dengue infections often follow the first attack due to a compromised immune system.

Though dengue is not contagious, that is, it doesn't spread through human-to-human contact, but an infected person can put other family members at risk if a mosquito bites the healthy uninfected individual after biting the infected person. So, in this way a vector can mediate the spread of the disease among family members. So, if someone in your family is infected and you start feeling low with fever, rush to a doctor before the disease worsens or the symptoms are magnified manifold.

Though the superficial signs and symptoms can help you or your doctor get a glimpse of the disease that you may be harboring within your body, only a diagnostic laboratory blood examination can confirm the presence of disease. 

If you or a child in your house is having high body temperature and are down with fever, don't take it lightly. If you ignore it as an insignificant bout of fever that will last for a day or two and then subside, think again! Not all types of feverish conditions are mild and so should not be taken lightly.

At times, it could be dengue infection in your body system due to mosquito bite that is causing the feverish symptoms. Dengue can occur in adults and children alike, but it is milder and less harmful in children than in adults. Mild cases of dengue fever go away in a week.

If you're not sure whether it is a mild instance of fever, malaria, or the highly painful break-bone fever 'dengue', here's how you can find out:

1. Bone Pain: The symptoms of dengue start appearing after 5-8 days from the mosquito's bite. The symptom of dengue that distinguishes itself from other types of mosquito-borne diseases is severe bone pain. The pain is so intense that your bones seem to break from within. The primary symptoms of dengue are leg pain and joint pain.

2. Rashes: Dengue is characterized by transient pink rashes that appear abruptly and disappear quickly. The rashes look similar to that of measles infection.

3. Bleeding: Eyes become red, and gums and nose bleed. Skin bleeding often appears as bruised skin. There is drop in platelet count too. Sometimes, too much bleeding could lead to haemorrhagic shock, which could be fatal too if not treated early on. This is known as DHF (Dengue Haemorrhagic Fever) or DSS (Dengue Shock Syndrome).

4. Body Temperature: Body temperature shoots to as high as 104 F to 105 F, which is dangerous if not brought down early.

5. Heart Rate and Blood Pressure (BP): The dengue-infected person suffers from bradycardia (low heart rate) and subsequently low blood pressure.

6. Eye Ache: Severe headache and eye pain are experienced in dengue.

7. Other Symptoms: Nausea, vomiting, swollen glands, loss of appetite, breathlessness, abdominal pain, sleepiness, sweaty skin, and black stools are some other symptoms of dengue. In severe cases, there could be heart, liver, and lung complications. The liver could enlarge or the circulatory system may become laggard leading to heart problems.

If you live in a dengue-prone area, then you should be quick to visit a doctor in case you develop feverish conditions. Remember that dengue can even lead to death under very severe conditions. So, never take the dengue advice with a pinch of salt.

Dengue fever is certainly treatable, but recovery takes a long course and so is accompanied by depression and fatigue. Secondary dengue infections often follow the first attack due to a compromised immune system.

Though dengue is not contagious, that is, it doesn't spread through human-to-human contact, but an infected person can put other family members at risk if a mosquito bites the healthy uninfected individual after biting the infected person. So, in this way a vector can mediate the spread of the disease among family members. So, if someone in your family is infected and you start feeling low with fever, rush to a doctor before the disease worsens or the symptoms are magnified manifold.

Though the superficial signs and symptoms can help you or your doctor get a glimpse of the disease that you may be harbouring within your body, only a diagnostic laboratory blood examination can confirm the presence of disease.