Dengue patients usually recover solely with proper rest and adequate fluid intake and do not require platelet transfusions as long as they do not have any other complication, said a doctor of haematology at Brac University on Thursday, 26 September 2019.
Patients need to rest for at least 14 days as the body remains weak despite the fever going away and many of the deaths that have occurred recently resulted from victims overlooking this aspect, added Dr Gulzar Hossain.
There are almost 5 lakh hospital admissions with dengue haemorrhagic fever every year and there is no specific antibiotic or medicine for it, said the consultant of the National Institute of Cancer Research and Hospital.
Without proper treatment, the fatality rate can exceed 20 percent while intensive support therapy can bring it down to one percent, he told a seminar organised by the Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.
The Aedes aegypti mosquito, which spreads dengue fever, flourishes during the rainy season with its eggs capable of hatching in less than a day and staying dormant without water for nine months, said Dr Hossain.
The larva takes about four days to develop into a pupa, from which an adult mosquito emerges after two days, he said.
The department Chairperson Professor Dr AFM Yusuf Haider and other faculty members were present at the seminar.