Dr Rajiv Desai
An Educational Blog
DENGUE
DENGUE: Prologue: I have treated about 150 patients of dengue fever in the year 2008 and 2009 in India and I want to share my experience with the rest of the world about this not-so-bad infamous disease which was wrongly labeled ‘horrible’ as patient’s relatives run from one place to another place in search of platelet transfusion looking at low platelet count with fear and the fear psychosis augmented by treating doctors. Synonyms and abbreviations: Dengue fever = DF Dengue hemorrhagic fever = DHF Dengue shock syndrome = DSS Dengue virus = DENV DIC = disseminated intravascular coagulation GI tract = gastrointestinal tract NSAIDS = non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs Normal saline = 0.9 % sodium chloride solution = 9 gram salt dissolved in 1 Liter water. ICF = intracellular fluid ECF = extracellular fluid = interstitial fluid + intravascular fluid Dengue fever is an acute febrile viral illness caused […]
CHIKUNGUNYA
CHIKUNGUNYA Prologue: Few years ago, I have not heard the name Chikungunya but now a days, I am treating plenty of Chikungunya cases in my medical practice in India. The hall mark of Chikungunya is presence of multiple cases in a family/ neighbourhood/ locality /village /township. Majority of patients have abrupt onset fever with severe joint pain (arthralgia) with/without joint swelling (arthritis). Even though majority recovered soon, some of them have chronic crippling arthritis lasting for months or years. Also, many patients of Chikungunya were erroneously diagnosed as typhoid/ malaria/ dengue and received wrong treatment. So I posted this comments on Chikungunya to educate masses. Synonyms and abbreviations: Vector = arthropod = mosquito Chikungunya fever = CF Chikungunya virus = CHIK-V Chikungunya = chicken guinea = chicken gunaya = chickengunya The disease was first described by Marion Robinson and W.H.R. Lumsden in 1955, following an outbreak in 1952 on the […]
