Samara Tawziat Choudhury
Sophomore
School of Life Sciences
Independent University, Bangladesh
March 30th, 2017
Every year from the month of July to October my mother goes berserk. She forces me to drink milk and eat eggs and vegetables every day. Now, you may ask - what could possibly push a mother to force feed her 20-year-old? The answer, for reasons I will explain, is dengue. In Bangladesh, at least 700 people are affected by dengue each year. We all have a general idea of what dengue is. A type of severe fever caused by mosquitoes that can, in many cases, lead to death. Well, today I would like to talk about all things dengue.
First and foremost, let us clarify something. It’s not the mosquito that causes the disease. It just acts as a vector, or in simpler words, carries the disease from one individual to another. What causes the disease is a virus known as dengue. Most of us have heard about viruses. But how many of us actually know what a virus is? A virus is a microorganism. Don’t get scared reading the name. It only sounds hard. Its meaning is actually pretty straightforward. “Micro” because it is so small we couldn’t possibly see it without a microscope. And “organism” because even though it is way too tiny for us to even imagine it, it is still very much a living thing.
Now that we know what causes dengue, let us get back to the involvement of mosquitoes. It is actually a sort of a cycle. A mosquito bites a person infected with dengue and while sucking in the individual’s blood, the virus is also taken up by the mosquito. Many of us don’t know the mechanism of a mosquito bite. A mosquito actually pushes in two needle-like tubes into its victim’s blood vessels through their skin. One tube releases mosquito saliva that makes sure the blood does not clot, so that it can be quickly sucked in by the other tube. An infected mosquito can pass on the virus to a healthy individual through its saliva, and the virus replicates inside the individual. Then another mosquito may bite this person and thus, the cycle continues.
Not all mosquitoes cause dengue. The virus is primarily carried by mosquitoes of the Aedes aegypti species. It can be recognized by the black and white stripes throughout its surface. The symptoms of dengue include sudden, high fever, severe headaches, pain behind the eyes, severe joint and muscle pain, fatigue, nausea, vomiting and a skin rash, which appear two to five days after the onset of fever. In severe cases of dengue, especially with the onset of dengue hemorrhagic fever, the symptoms can also include bleeding or bruising under the skin, cold or clammy skin, nosebleeds, and large drops in blood pressure. This is where it gets serious, and without immediate medical attention, can be fatal.
Finally, I would like to go back to the months I mentioned in the beginning. Mosquitoes tend to lay their eggs in stagnant water because the eggs require water to hatch. In Bangladesh, the months from July to October are usually categorized as the rainy season. In these months, flooding may occur and drainage systems may get all clogged up, providing mosquitoes with the perfect breeding grounds to lay their eggs. Therefore, it is important that dirty water bodies are cleaned out regularly. Also, we should make it a habit to use mosquito repellents and mosquito nets to reduce chances of getting bitten by an infected mosquito. And, in the end, if you want to have a strong immune system to fight the dengue virus, it may not be a bad idea to take my mother’s number one advice- eat healthy as this would better prepare your body to fight infection in the event that it occurs.
Samara dreams of curing diseases and working for the WHO. She also loves to cook, and has a weird wish to be buried in a library so that her soul can read books for eternity.
Sophomore
School of Life Sciences
Independent University, Bangladesh
March 30th, 2017
Every year from the month of July to October my mother goes berserk. She forces me to drink milk and eat eggs and vegetables every day. Now, you may ask - what could possibly push a mother to force feed her 20-year-old? The answer, for reasons I will explain, is dengue. In Bangladesh, at least 700 people are affected by dengue each year. We all have a general idea of what dengue is. A type of severe fever caused by mosquitoes that can, in many cases, lead to death. Well, today I would like to talk about all things dengue.
First and foremost, let us clarify something. It’s not the mosquito that causes the disease. It just acts as a vector, or in simpler words, carries the disease from one individual to another. What causes the disease is a virus known as dengue. Most of us have heard about viruses. But how many of us actually know what a virus is? A virus is a microorganism. Don’t get scared reading the name. It only sounds hard. Its meaning is actually pretty straightforward. “Micro” because it is so small we couldn’t possibly see it without a microscope. And “organism” because even though it is way too tiny for us to even imagine it, it is still very much a living thing.
Aedes aegypti after a blood meal. CDC
Not all mosquitoes cause dengue. The virus is primarily carried by mosquitoes of the Aedes aegypti species. It can be recognized by the black and white stripes throughout its surface. The symptoms of dengue include sudden, high fever, severe headaches, pain behind the eyes, severe joint and muscle pain, fatigue, nausea, vomiting and a skin rash, which appear two to five days after the onset of fever. In severe cases of dengue, especially with the onset of dengue hemorrhagic fever, the symptoms can also include bleeding or bruising under the skin, cold or clammy skin, nosebleeds, and large drops in blood pressure. This is where it gets serious, and without immediate medical attention, can be fatal.
Finally, I would like to go back to the months I mentioned in the beginning. Mosquitoes tend to lay their eggs in stagnant water because the eggs require water to hatch. In Bangladesh, the months from July to October are usually categorized as the rainy season. In these months, flooding may occur and drainage systems may get all clogged up, providing mosquitoes with the perfect breeding grounds to lay their eggs. Therefore, it is important that dirty water bodies are cleaned out regularly. Also, we should make it a habit to use mosquito repellents and mosquito nets to reduce chances of getting bitten by an infected mosquito. And, in the end, if you want to have a strong immune system to fight the dengue virus, it may not be a bad idea to take my mother’s number one advice- eat healthy as this would better prepare your body to fight infection in the event that it occurs.
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