Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Dengue Fever

We are experiencing another outbreak of hemmoraegic dengue fever here in the DR on the north coast, Sosua, near Puerto Plata.

Formerly called break bone fever.. this can often be fatal,, especially for young children. There is no medicine for it. The mosquitoes bite during the daytime so that nets will not help.

Here is a post from a man who had his child treated here in the DR.

Please forward to any medical teams working in Haiti.. since..if we have it.. they have it too.. or soon will.


People (especially little children) have to drink lots of liquids, this is important. With fever onset drink lots and lots of Gatorade, to rehydrate.
As with any fever, your blood platelets will decrease, but the decrease with dengue is significant. With dengue, it is important to make platelets tests every 2 days The decrease may not show up until after 3-4 days after the dengue fever onset.

You can go to doctor but there is NO MEDICATION, they will prescribe observation and support therapy (rest and liquids).

If the blood platelets drop significantly the hemoragic version of dengue fever may appear. This is usually caused by dehydratation and a good percentage of hemoragic dengue fever patients go into shock, and as mentioned, stats are black for those that go into shock.

To increase blood platelets:
A blended juice (just use your blender)
- GUAYABA (guava) -- this is the primary and most important ingredient, you can do without others, but this one is the must!
- CEREZA (cherry)
- REMOLACHA (beet root)
and some water and sugar.
The effect on blood platelets increase is almost immediate.

Remember to keep drinking lots of liquids, especially Gatorade, this is even what doctors say, it helps you increase chemical balance within your blood.

3 comments:

Kathleen said...

Hi! When I read "just use your blender" i remember living in Haiti where we would not have electricity for 11 months or so.

Where can Haitians find the ingredients? I don't remember eating guava there, but I certainly do here!!!

Lizie, looking forward very much to talking with you. Kathleen

juan sosa said...

Can you share any update on dengue fever in Sosua or Las Terrenas area over last year? My family, including a 2 and 9 year old, is planning trip to Las Terrenas and then a day or two in Sosua. Any feel for whether dengue incidents are increasing or decreasing and whether fatality/seriousness of cases is increasing or decreasing?

juan p.

Elizabeth Eames Roebling said...

Dengue appears to be quite calm in the country now.. there are always cases, of course, since it is endemic but there does not appear to be an outbreak now, either in the North Coast towns that you mentioned or the Capital. You can travel in peace.