Urgent reminder! Guangdong has 1,785 new cases in 7 days. Taking ibuprofen will make dengue fever worse.

Recently, the news #Guangdong added 1785 dengue cases in 7 days# has become a hot search, attracting widespread attention. Disease control centers in many provinces have issued alerts, reminding everyone to be vigilant about the risk of imported cases and to pay extra attention. Shenzhen Disease Control Center has even urgently reminded that "taking ibuprofen will make the situation worse."

Image source: Weibo screenshot

So, what exactly is dengue fever and why does taking ibuprofen make it worse?

What is dengue fever?

Dengue fever is an epidemic disease that is widely prevalent in tropical and subtropical countries and regions such as Southeast Asia, the Western Pacific region and southern Africa.

In recent years, dengue fever outbreaks in my country have mainly come from imported cases from overseas, mainly from Southeast Asian and South Asian countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos and Malaysia. Therefore, dengue fever in China is also mostly prevalent in areas that have close contact with these countries, such as coastal or border areas such as Guangdong and Yunnan.

Dengue fever is transmitted by mosquitoes carrying the dengue virus. Infected people usually develop symptoms 4 to 7 days, or even two weeks after being bitten by a mosquito carrying the dengue virus. The symptoms usually last 5 to 7 days.

Symptoms of dengue fever vary greatly from person to person and can be mild or severe. They may include the following:

Fever

Headache

●Pain in the eye socket;

Joint and muscle pain;

Feeling tired, sometimes lasting for days to weeks;

A rash, which may be flat or have small papules and may itch. Studies have found that patients with first-time dengue infection are more likely to have a rash.

● Stomach upset, such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea;

●Cough, sore throat and nasal congestion;

Small purple spots on the skin or black stools;

Red eyes;

●Swallowed lymph nodes.

In general, most of the symptoms of dengue fever are very similar to those of the common cold and influenza, and it is difficult to distinguish them based on the symptoms alone.

Moreover, the symptoms of children and young people who are infected are often milder. Therefore, doctors often combine local epidemic characteristics and the patient's travel history to help diagnose the disease. Medical institutions with conditions can also confirm the diagnosis through laboratory tests.

Therefore, if you find yourself or your family facing the above symptoms and have been bitten by a mosquito recently, it is recommended that you go to a medical institution for treatment in time.

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Beware! Secondary infection with dengue fever

The condition will get worse

Dengue can be re-infected, and the risk of severe symptoms is higher when infected again with dengue virus. This is because the unpredictable dengue virus has four different serotypes (DENV-1, DENV-2, DENV-3 and DENV-4), and the cross-immunity between each serotype is low. Therefore, after being infected with one serotype, when infected again with another serotype, the human immune system will show an "antibody-dependent enhancement" (ADE) response mechanism to the dengue virus.

In simple terms, "antibody-dependent enhancement" (ADE) means that when a person is infected with dengue virus for the first time, they will produce specific antibodies to fight the virus. However, when they are infected with dengue virus for the second time, these antibodies will not only fail to fight the virus, but will bind to the virus and enhance its ability to infect. This effect will cause the virus to multiply rapidly in the body, aggravating the condition.

Therefore, the most important thing to do when facing dengue fever is to take good precautions. And the best way to prevent dengue fever is to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes carrying the dengue virus.

Some people may ask: "What should I do if I don't know which mosquitoes carry the virus?" Then try to avoid being bitten by all mosquitoes. Specific measures and suggestions:

● The peak of mosquito activity usually occurs 1-2 hours before sunrise in the morning and 2-3 hours before sunset in the evening. Mosquitoes are more active in the evening than in the morning. Therefore, it is best to stay indoors during this period and prepare necessary mosquito-proof measures such as screens and mosquito nets in the house;

● Wear shoes, long-sleeved shirts, long pants, and a hat when going out;

●Use mosquito repellent containing DEET or icaridin;

● Check for stagnant water near your home and properly handle it, such as pools, buckets, and plants in pots, as mosquitoes breed in stagnant water.

Dengue infection

Taking ibuprofen can make your condition worse

As with most other viruses, there is currently no specific medicine for dengue virus infection, and treatment mainly focuses on symptomatic relief of symptoms.

As mentioned above, after being infected with dengue fever, most people experience symptoms of fever and pain, and these two symptoms can usually be relieved with "antipyretic analgesics", the most commonly used of which are acetaminophen and ibuprofen.

But please note that it is not recommended to use ibuprofen when infected with dengue fever, as it may make the condition worse!

This is because the dengue virus may affect the body's coagulation function, causing the number of platelets in the infected person to decrease, resulting in abnormal coagulation function and bleeding tendency, such as nose bleeding, bleeding gums, skin bleeding, gastrointestinal bleeding, etc.

Ibuprofen belongs to the class of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which mainly work by inhibiting the activity of cyclooxygenase (COX). On the one hand, ibuprofen has antipyretic, analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects, and is often used to relieve pain and reduce fever. On the other hand, it affects the function of platelets and increases the risk of bleeding.

For other viruses, the risk is low, but for a disease like dengue, where the risk of bleeding is already high, using ibuprofen doubles the risk.

In addition, apart from ibuprofen, aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are not recommended, and acetaminophen is recommended as the first choice.

Finally, it is necessary to emphasize that although the dengue virus is terrible, according to current data, there are not many severe cases and deaths caused by it, so there is no need to panic. Take good protection, do not use drugs indiscriminately, and leave the rest to professional doctors.

Planning and production

Author: Liu Ziqi, Chief Pharmacist, First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University

Reviewer: Li Dongzeng, Chief Physician, Department of Infectious Diseases, Beijing Youan Hospital