Dengue Virus

How does the Dengue Virus cause disease?

The problems of Dengue virus begin when the mosquito Aedes aegypti feeds blood from a Dengue infected person. This person has to have the virus circulating in their blood stream when the mosquito sucks blood. After the mosquito contracts the virus from the infected human host, the virus then replicates within the mosquito during an extrinsic incubation period of eight to twelve days. The mosquito then bites into the blood stream of its next human blood meal and infects that person with the Dengue virus as well as every other person the mosquito bites in her lifetime. Once the second person has been infected, the virus begins to replicate within their body and also begins to show symptoms four to seven days on average and three to fourteen in some cases after the mosquito bit them. The person now begins to develop Dengue Fever and the symptoms are severe muscle and joint pain accompanied by severe headaches. The symptoms of Dengue are similar to the Flu. Once the infected human recovers from the Dengue Fever, they are immune to that one serotype of Dengue, for life. If another mosquito carrying a different serotype ever infects this same person, they will then develop what is known as Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever, this is the more lethal form of Dengue Fever. In DHF, the person will show all of the symptoms of DF but will also begin to bleed internally. Bleeding will be noticed easily inside the eyes and inside the limbs. The victim will eventually succumb to the bleeding and the pain and die if not under the care of a trained physician.