Dengue facts. fyi.

There are two types of dengue fever. The dengue (DF) and dengue hemorrhagic fever (the latter is the deadlier version) caused by 4 viruses.

When a person is infected, he gains immunity only to that particular variation for life but he can still be infected again with another virus. i.e. you can get dengue more than once. There is good evidence that sequential infection increases the risk of more serious disease resulting in DHF.

The aedes mosquito which spreads the disease is a day-biting one.

Mosquitoes only acquire the virus if they bite after the virus has circulated in the blood of infected humans for two to seven days (ard the time they start having a fever). And even then, the virus would incubate in the mosquito for an additional 8-10 days.

The symptoms of dengue include the abrupt onset of high fever, severe headache, pain behind the eyes, muscle and joint pains and rash. The Dengue haemorrhagic fever will have high fever, sometimes with the enlargement of liver and if severe, circulatory failure.

There is no vaccine for dengue yet.