A consultant in internal diseases and fevers, speaking to Sky News Arabia, provides advice and recommendations to protect oneself from this infiltrated disease, especially with the increased chances of its spread amid the global warming as a result of climate change.

Peru, in South America, declared a state of emergency at the end of the week following the death toll exceeded 200, with hospitals struggling to accommodate the injured, and setting up field hospitals in the tents of sports stadiums.

According to government data, the disease has infected 130,000 people so far this year, exceeding the record recorded in 2017, which was 70,000.

Where does dengue fever come from?

A consultant for internal diseases and diets, Maher Al-Jarhi, presents the path of this disease from its source until it reaches the human blood:

• It is a disease caused by a virus that is transmitted by the female mosquito with her proboscis (mouth) to the human being by stinging.
• A person may transmit the infection to the mosquito itself, if the mosquito feeds on the blood of a person who is already infected with the virus, then the mosquito in turn transmits it to a larger number of people.
• Its sources are in stagnant waters and swamps around which mosquitoes breed.
• Temperatures increase the chances of its presence and spread. Therefore, it was initially endemic in hot and tropical countries in Africa, Asia and South America.
• The virus causes high fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, muscle pain, and in severe cases bleeding that can lead to death.

According to the World Health Organization website and its officials regarding the spread of the disease:

• Climate change, which raised the global temperature, increased the chances and speed of the spread of the virus and its transmission to countries that were not used to its presence, such as France and Croatia in Europe.
• The disease affects from 100 to 400 million people annually, and threatens half of the Earth’s population.
• It is not transmitted from human to human except in rare cases from mother to fetus or by blood transfusion and organ donation.

How does a person discover his infection?

Garhi answers:

• Diagnosis of dengue fever is by the appearance of several symptoms, especially if the person resides in an area where the disease is common.
• The symptoms are: a severe rise in temperature that may reach 40 degrees Celsius, a rash, with severe pain in the bones, muscles, eyes and abdomen, accompanied by vomiting, and sometimes bleeding occurs that leads to a drop in blood circulation.

Medication without a vaccine

There is no vaccine or specific treatment for dengue fever, but it can be treated by taking pain relievers and antipyretics, and by taking solutions, according to Al-Jarhi and the World Health Organization data.

If the virus is in its infancy, recovery may occur within 4-7 days, and in other cases it may take 10 days.

“Keep away from mosquitoes”

The internal medicine and diet consultant recommends that susceptible people take precautions to protect their bodies from exposure to mosquitoes.

Among these precautions, as Al-Jarhi says: “Keep away from places of stagnant and unclean water that gather mosquitoes, and if necessary, wear clothes that cover the entire body to protect it from mosquito bites, in addition to applying creams that cover it with a layer of protection.”

Despite the spread of this disease, many people do not pay attention because the first carrier of it is mosquitoes that abound among them, especially in agricultural areas and around canals and ponds.