How safe is your child from dengue? Hyderabad doctors urge parents to take precautions

Taking a lesson from last year’s major surge in dengue infections in Telangana, senior pediatricians have urged parents to be cautious and educate themselves about precautions.

Hyderabad: With children and adolescents now regularly venturing out from home for schools, tuitions, music classes, sports camps and other outdoor activities, it’s crucial for parents to be highly vigilant and implement protective measures against seasonal ailments like dengue.

Taking a lesson from last year’s major surge in dengue and chikungunya infections witnessed in Hyderabad and elsewhere in Telangana, senior pediatricians have urged parents to be cautious and educate themselves about precautions. Parents and guardians must always look out for warning signs, so that treatment can be started at the right time, pediatricians said.

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Seasonal disease experts and pediatricians in Hyderabad have urged parents to be well informed and always be on the lookout for warning signs. Parents must watch out for most common symptoms of dengue including fever, nausea, vomiting, rash, low WBC count and severe body pains. A positive tourniquet is also a common warning sign.

“Do not have a false sense of security. Always look for warning signs like excessive irritability, drowsiness, severe pain below the ribs, persistent vomiting, nosebleeds, bruising or rashes, decreasing blood platelets, development of severe pain near the liver and fluid collection in lungs. Parents must take their child to a doctor at the earliest,” advises senior pediatric specialist from Hyderabad, Dr Sivaranjani Santosh.

The senior pediatrician has also warned about administering extracts from papaya leaves to children and even adults. “There is absolutely no role of papaya leaves, when platelet count is as low as 20,000 or 30,000. The patient is already very sick. They will be having severe stomach pain due to limited blood circulation. At this time, papaya leaves may end-up causing more severe stomach pain,” Dr Santosh pointed out.

 

Important advice from top doctors to dengue patients:

· Avoid NSAIDS like aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, diclofenac etc

· Paracetamol is ideal to reduce fever

· Steroids have no role in treatment of dengue

· Hydrate properly

· Papaya leaf juice does not provide any relief

· Platelet or blood transfusion only if platelets drop less than 15, 000 or 20, 000.

· Dengue tests are NS1 and IgM

· NS1 on day 2 of symptoms and IgM on test on Day 5

· Day 2 means second day of fever

· No use of antibiotics and anti-malarials in treating dengue

 

Dengue positive cases in TS:

In 2024: 10, 007 positive

In 2023: Total: 8016 positive cases

In 2022: 8972 positive cases

In 2021: 7135 positive cases

In 2020: 2173 positive cases